Kolkata police on Monday decided to dispose of the seized and unclaimed vehicles kept inside the police station compounds and the roads in front.
During a meeting at Lalbazar, it was decided that the police would ask the vehicle owners to claim their cars against bonds or shift them to earmarked dumping grounds.
Sources in the police said at present there are 1,073 vehicles that were lying unclaimed on the dumping grounds earmarked for Kolkata police.
“We have been asked to dispose of the cars by contacting their owners and asking them to claim their cars against a zimmanama (bond),” said the officer in charge of a police station in central division.
The meeting, chaired by Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goyal was attended by senior officers of the police from the rank of deputy commissioners of the nine divisions.
The move came two days after Goyal received a written communication from Kolkata Municipal Corporation mayor Firhad Hakim to remove condemned vehicles from police station compounds and prevent them from becoming mosquito breeding grounds.
An officer in Lalbazar said as already 1,073 vehicles were stacked on the dumping grounds, it was difficult to accommodate more cars there and hence, the quickest solution to clear the police station compounds was to hand over the cars to their owners against bonds.
Hundreds of cars — most of them covered with a film of dirt and dust — are found parked outside police stations.
Police officers, who spoke to The Telegraph, said, the process started on Monday.
A large number of these cars are case exhibits of traffic accidents, some have been seized for their use in kidnapping and thefts while some have been recovered after being stolen.
A senior police officer said it was difficult to accommodate all the condemned cars as the space for their disposal in the city is “very limited”.
“This (disposal) cannot be done in one day.... Now that we have to dispose of all the vehicles in a rush, we are facing difficulty,” said an officer in south suburban division.