- MUMBAI: Amidst questioning by a bench of the Bombay High Court on Monday as to why VIPs use roads during rush hour causing undue hardship and inconvenience to the general public, the President's office on Tuesday went on the back foot and stated that after the court remarks, that several measures have been put in place to avoid inconvenience as much as possible to the commuting public and that henceforth President Pratibha Patil's convoy size would be scaled down by substituting few cars with min-buses.
"All state governments will be directed to ensure that traffic along the president convoy's route is not halted for more than five minutes before the convoy passes and normal traffic should resume immediately thereafter. Organizers of the president’s programs will be advised to select venues nearer to the Raj Bhavan, where the president halts during her stay.
During the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed last year by the Bombay Bar Association, which alleged that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had failed to implement traffic regulations in the city, and that due to the traffic disruptions during the visits of heads of states — Indians as well as foreign — during peak hours causing hardship and inconvenience to the citizens of Mumbai faced hardship, the division bench constituting justices D.K. Deshmukh and N.D. Deshpande asked the government pleader as to why the government and the police cannot use Mumbai's busy roads at a time when the average motorist would face lesser inconvenience.
The government pleader Dhairyyasheel Nalawade told the court that the president, the vice-president, the prime minister and the foreign heads of states are given VIP facilities during peak hours due to the threat perception to them. The judges then asked, "Why do these dignitaries who face threat to their lives not make arrangements in such a manner that the common man does not suffer? Why does the president of India arrive in the city during peak hours and why not when there is lesser traffic?"
Rapping the government, the judges further said that hey are not of the view that VIPs should not move about the city or that they should not be given protection. The authorities can give all the facilities when there is less traffic and least inconvenience is caused to the public. Why can't they themselves think about it, they questioned.
Taken aback by the grilling of the judges, Nalawade said that the issue of using helicopters comes up so that VIP movements in the city do not affect normal traffic at every traffic department meeting, to which Justice Deshmukh remarked "They may use helicopters but the traffic department should arrange it in such a way that it creates least trouble to common man. The court then directed the traffic department of the Mumbai police to file an affidavit in the matter.
