"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.
