Police to get 4 Tiger towing vehicles

Mangaluru: Four tiger towing vehicles would be brought to Mangaluru to take action against unauthorized parking of vehicles on roadside, informed Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Hanumantharaya here on Friday.

One towing vehicle will be given to all the four traffic police stations in the city in the next few days to lift vehicles parked in No Parking areas.

Hanunatharaya replied to a question at the weekly phone-in programme and said that the police invited bids three times to select an agency to tow vehicles for the police. Since no one replied, the process was cancelled. Firms were reluctant to submit bids as the cost to be paid for towing a vehicle was too less. Later, the city police urged the government to increase the rates for towing vehicles.

After the government issued an order revising the towing rates for Mangaluru city, the police called for bids again and four agencies have applied. The agency will be selected once the bids are opened.

To the question on why police on night patrol were not booking criminal cases against those using loud speakers after 10 p.m.the DCP replied that the police were ensuring that such sound systems are switched off. “They are not registering FIRs as they do not have equipment to measure the sound level,” he explained.

The police clearly mention the decibel levels to be maintained in residential and commercial areas while issuing loud speaker licence. There was a bar on the use of sound systems between 10 pm and 6 am, he added.

Mr. Hanumantharaya informed that in the last six months the police registered FIRs for violation of sound norms in the mornings and the cases were being registered under Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act.