Mangaluru: City Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil has warned of stringent action against those who dump construction materials on the footpath and disturb pedestrian movement.

Responding to the complaints by the public during the weekly phone-in programme on Friday, May 31, Patil advised that the construction materials should not be scattered on the footpaths as it caused a lot of inconvenience to the pedestrians. “The contractors of the building and owners should ensure that no construction materials are dumped on the footpath. If not, proper action will be taken against the persons concerned,” he cautioned.

Though the towing vehicles of the police department have been functioning in city to deal with parking violations, there are allegations that only two-wheelers are towed away and the four-wheelers spared. During the phone-in programme, a caller urged the commissioner of police not to discriminate between two-wheelers and four-wheelers while taking action.

Responding to it, Patil clarified that no such discrimination was being made by the police department. If cars cannot be towed away by the towing vehicles, photos of such vehicles will be clicked and notices issued to their owners, he said adding that measures would be taken to collect penalty from them.  

There were also complaints regarding demand of excess fare by the autorickshaw drivers and rude behaviour by bus drivers and conductors among others during the phone-in programme. Sandeep Patil assured of taking proper measures to redress the problems.