Drive to remove abandoned vehicles from public places in Kozhikode yet to gather steam

Enforcement agencies fail to identify owners and serve notice on them

The special drive for the removal of abandoned vehicles to free up public space and waysides, which was launched a few months ago, is yet to be completed in Kozhikode district. Light motor vehicles and two-wheelers which were badly damaged in road accidents are mostly in the list of such vehicles.

Though registration numbers are clearly visible in almost all such vehicles, the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) or the police are yet to find out their owners or serve them notice to remove the vehicles. Many such vehicles are now in derelict condition giving shelter to street dogs and rodents.

“We don’t know whether any of these vehicles have been used for any criminal activities. Local people are reluctant to report such cases to the police because of legal complications,” said V. Habeeb, a junk dealer from Atholi. Though many approach us for dismantling vehicles, we have no right to remove them without clearance from the higher authorities or completing the legal auction procedures, he said.

According to sources, there are many unclaimed vehicles in private and public parking spaces in many parts of the district. As closed-circuit television cameras installed in many of these locations have limited storage capacity, there is little scope to identify the persons who parked the vehicles there. Many suspect that such abandoned vehicles may have been used in crimes.

Meanwhile, Station House Officers of some of the police stations in the city said the timely reporting by local residents’ associations about abandoning of vehicles can help the police carry out effective investigation into criminal cases.

Police officials who previously took part in clearing such vehicles said they had a system in place to serve notice on owners concerned for removing vehicles. If they were not removed by owners in 30 days after receiving the notice, they would be shifted to the nearest dumping yard. Later on, procedures will be initiated to clear the dumping yards along with other such vehicles seized in various cases, they said.

There are also plenty of seized vehicles in the compounds of various police stations in the city and rural areas. Though public auctioning is under way within the limits of various police stations to clear the space, it is yet to be completed because of sluggish procedures and legal issues.