TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Margao traffic cops have been literally caught on the wrong foot over the parking of vehicles in front of the road opposite the District Police Headquarters.
While the traffic cops led by DySP Guruprasad Mhape always move with alacrity to challan two-wheeler riders for parking vehicles along the road side, taking shelter of a notification notifying the road as no parking zone, Mhapne and his cops were conspicuous by their absence as a fleet of Goa police jeeps were parked outside the police headquarters on Friday evening right near a no parking signboard.
This is not the first time that the traffic cops have turned a blind eye to Police jeeps from being parked in the no parking zone opposite the district police headquarters.
The police inaction against the police jeeps, which had brought in-charges of police stations from South Goa for a meeting at the district headquarters, has triggered outrage amongst the citizens. While the citizens directed their ire at an overzealous DySP Mhapne for singling out only two-wheeler riders, Velim MLA Benjanmin D’Silva maintained that the law of the land is applicable equally to all citizens, Ministers, MLAs and officials as well. “There is not discrimination before the law. All are equal,” he said, when the media sought his reaction when he was leaving the district police headquarters.
A citizen Mahesh Nayak wondered whether there are two sets of rules and laws for the common citizen and the men in uniform. “I have been a victim of the traffic cops when I was challaned for parking alongside the road outside the police headquarters. Why has the traffic cops not shown the same zeal to book the police jeeps?” Nayak said, while seeking to know from the Home Minister whether only the ordinary citizen is duty bound to obey the laws.
Incidentally, while DySP Mhapne and his cops do not spare the citizens for parking two-wheelers along the roadside, neither the district police chief nor the DySP have made any parking provision for people visiting the headquarters for passport inquiries or at the police stations of Margao and Maina-Curtorim.
