Jammu, Oct 22: Putting into practice the famous phrase - Robbing Peter to Pay Paul- the   Traffic Police Department is paying around Rs 16 lakh per month to the private transporters for hiring towing vans.
Traffic Police, according to sources, is paying the huge sum for using private towing vans because of shortage of such facility within the department. The excuse dished out by the traffic department is that its own vehicles are unusable or the same were not equipped to tow high-end cars.
The traffic police is currently hiring six private towing vehicles, being operated in the capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar.
“Traffic police department’s unwillingness to buy its own hydraulic wrecker lifting cranes, is surmising to a nexus between private company (crane owners) and the department”, a senior government functionary told Greater Kashmir, on the condition of anonymity.
Out of the six hired vehicles, the traffic police have deployed two in Jammu and four in Kashmir valley for removing illegally parked vehicles. “The department charges around Rs 1500 to Rs 2000 per vehicle, if it is lifted for wrong parking. Out of this amount Rs 249 is being paid to the crane owner as lifting charges and Rs 649 as other charges”, sources claimed.
They added that every vehicle engaged by the traffic police lifts around 10-15 vehicles per day. “At an average a single crane gets Rs 9000 per day from the traffic department with six vehicles getting around Rs 54000 per day,” sources said, adding that these private-owned cranes are working with the department since last more than six months and have siphoned off almost Rs 1 crore from Traffic Police till now.
Sources further disclosed that if the department goes for purchase of own towing vehicles each such vehicle would not cost more than Rs 10 lakh. “With the money paid to private transporters, the department could have safely purchased at least 10 such cranes,” sources said.
The private vehicles being used as towing cranes are in fact plying in violation of traffic norms. Official sources in the transport department said that the vehicles have been registered as transport vehicles and later modified as towing vans.
Similar objections were also raised by a local court in Jammu, which had directed seizure of all such vehicles.
When contacted, Inspector General of Traffic Police, Muneer Khan, refused to comment on the issue. “I have nothing to say on it”, he said.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 22 Oct 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 23 Oct 2012 00:00:00 IST