CCTVs have kept squatters at bay on NSC Bose Road, say cops

CHENNAI: If the Chennai police are to be believed, hawking on NSC Bose Road between Flower Bazaar police station and Parry's Corner has been contained with a total of about 160 policemen on duty in two shifts and a horde of CCTV cameras keeping vigil.
The bandobust scheme has been devised to prevent hawkers and platform vendors from spreading shop, or returning after eviction, on NSC Bose pavements, additional commissioner of police Abhay Kumar Singh told the Madras high court in a report pursuant to a contempt of court petition filed by social activist Traffic Ramaswamy.
Taking note of the report, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam sought photo proof of the claims and said individual police staff stationed at specific spots would be held liable if hawkers flouted rules.
The steps taken for implementation of the scheme, along with photographs, must be filed, the judges said, adding: "We make it clear that the responsibility must rest primarily with one person at site who will be hauled up, if appropriate implementation does not take place." It then adjourned the matter to October 20 for further hearing.
During an earlier hearing, the bench had directed the authorities to devise a scheme as to how they proposed to ensure that there was no re-encroachment at the same spot. Addressing the court query, Singh submitted that 16 CCTV cameras had been fixed on NSC Bose Road. Notice boards have been erected at nine spots on the stretch, mentioning that those were out of bounds for hawkers. The Chennai corporation has been taking steps to put necessary constructions without any hindrance to the general public and pedestrians to prevent the hawkers from putting up shops, he said.
Narrating the bandobust scheme, the officer said 79 personnel drawn from law and order and traffic wings of city police, besides Tamil Nadu special police/armed reserve and the corporation have been deployed per shift.