Over 100 challans issued for traffic violations during BJP’s May 10 roadshow in Chandigarh
Blantant violation of traffic norms, including triple riding, two-wheeler riders without helmets, overloaded cars, riding on the wrong side of the two-way road and individuals sitting atop cars, were witnessed during the roadshow in Chandigarh
The Chandigarh traffic police have issued challans to over 100 participants of a roadshow held in support of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Lok Sabha nominee Sanjay Tandon when he was going to file his nomination papers on May 10.
Blantant violation of traffic norms, including triple riding, two-wheeler riders without helmets, overloaded cars, riding on the wrong side of the two-way road and individuals sitting atop cars, were witnessed during the roadshow, leading to chaos and inconvenience to city residents.
The roadshow had started from the BJP office in Sector 33 and concluded at the Exhibition Ground in Sector 34, after traversing numerous sectors.
Out of the total challans issues, about 75 were on the basis of handycam recordings by the police while the remaining were on the basis of complaints received via social media and those captured on closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
The challans were issued for various offences under the Motor Vehicle Act, including Section 184 (dangerous driving), Section 129 (riding without helmets) and Section 177 (wrong parking).
According to police, the roadshow attracted at least 500 vehicles as some supporters joined the cavalcade from various sectors.
Many city residents had taken to social media to post pictures of the violations while tagging the official handle of Chandigarh Traffic Police.
Harman Sidhu, a city resident and NGO worker, flagged several violations in three separate posts, all of which resulted in challans.
The Chandigarh Traffic Police responded to the posts with, “Action has been taken,” along with the violation ID and challan numbers.
As the roadshow snowballed into a controversy, attracting huge criticism for traffic violations, INDIA bloc candidate Manish Tewari organised a march (padyatra) while going to file his nomination papers on May 15.
When contacted for his take on the traffic police action, Tandon said, “I don’t want to comment on this at the moment.”
Senior superintendent of police (SSP, traffic) Sumer Pratap Singh was unavailable for comments despite repeated attempts.
