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Bengaluru clears 11,346 seized vehicles from police stations after years of delay
Karnataka has begun moving more than 11,000 long-seized vehicles from Bengaluru police stations to seven designated sites. The month-long exercise aims to free station premises, cut public inconvenience and reduce safety risks.
Karnataka Minister Krishna Byre Gowda on Wednesday launched a drive to shift more than 11,000 seized vehicles from police station premises across Bengaluru to seven designated locations. The move is aimed at clearing police station compounds and easing inconvenience to the public.
Officials said the drive was launched from the Jayanagar police station limits by the Greater Bengaluru Authority in coordination with the police and revenue department. Some of the seized vehicles have been lying at police stations for five, 10 and even 15 years in connection with various cases.
Speaking to reporters, Gowda said the government had been identifying long-pending problems in Bengaluru and taking steps to resolve issues affecting people in their daily lives. He said hundreds of vehicles had been lying around every police station for several years, getting damaged and rusted, with many now in a condition worse than scrap. Gowda, who holds the Greater Bengaluru Development portfolio, said people had complained that vehicles parked around police stations were obstructing movement and that some had even caught fire. He added that the garbage around them was also indirectly encouraging illegal activities, and that several MLAs and MPs had urged a permanent solution.
"In coordination with the police and revenue department, we have now launched an operation to clear vehicles that have been seized and have been lying around police stations for decades," he said. Gowda said preparatory meetings had been held over the last two months to work out a solution. He said that since many of the vehicles were linked to court cases, special requests had been suggested to clear them, but "the courts had said that the cases could not be fast-tracked". According to him, the police department had then asked for alternative space to park the vehicles.
Gowda said the revenue department was approached and provided 26 acres of land at seven locations for the police department to park the seized vehicles until the cases were disposed of. He said fencing was also being provided at these locations and that custody of the sites was being handed over to the police department, with the shifting beginning on Wednesday. He said 11,346 vehicles had been lying around police stations for a long time, including vehicles linked to traffic, accident and criminal cases, and that these could not be cleared until the related court cases were resolved.
"This is not a problem that has arisen today. It has been a problem for the Police Department for the last 15 to 20 years. We will shift as many of these vehicles as possible within the next one month," he said. The minister also said that a separate operation was already under way to clear abandoned vehicles parked on public roads and footpaths. "So far, we have pasted notices on 2,024 vehicles. Those owners who have not come forward to take them back were being towed away. There are also government vehicles that have reached an unusable stage. I have taken note of them, and we will speak to all the concerned departments and undertake a drive to clear those vehicles as well," Gowda added.
The exercise is intended to address a problem that officials said has persisted for years, by moving long-seized vehicles out of police station premises and into designated sites until the cases connected to them are settled.
