Sarojini Nagar: Ensure Vehicles don’t park on roads, says NGT

New Delhi : The National Green Tribunal on Monday directed the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to maintain a round-the-clock vigil at the Sarojini Nagar market in the capital to ensure that vehicles are not parked on the streets around it.

“You (traffic police) deploy force even at night so that people don’t park their vehicles on the road,” the green panel directed.

A bench, headed by NGT chairperson justice Swatanter Kumar, asked the civic body and the traffic police to ensure deployment of appropriate force at the South Delhi market.

The direction came after advocate Sakshi Popli, representing the NDMC, told the tribunal that though people parked their vehicles at the multi-level facility during the day, the shopkeepers continued to park their cars/two-wheelers on the roads at night.

She argued that the NDMC was facing non-cooperation from the shopkeepers as they were unwilling to take monthly passes for multi-level parking  that costs Rs 2,000. She said additional police force should be deployed to ban surface parking in the market.

Advocate T.S. Khehar, appearing for the Delhi traffic police, told the NGT that they have towed away 11,500 cars till date. Rejecting a plea by the market body to park vehicles on the roads, the NGT had on November 17 banned surface parking in the market.