Seized vehicles, dents on which have the potential to turn into breeding sites for mosquitoes, have been removed from outside several police stations in the city, The Telegraph found on Sunday.
There were, however, some vehicles lying idle for months along EM Bypass, near Kalikapur. The vehicles — two cars and a bus – had multiple openings and depressions where water can accumulate and turn into breeding sites for mosquitoes.
Police stations close to the place — Survey Park and Anandapur — said they had not seized any of these vehicles. An official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said it was the responsibility of the police to shift any vehicle that remains parked on a road for months.
Officers of Survey Park police station said they have not seized any of the three vehicles that were found parked along the service road of the Bypass, but were trying to identify the owners.
“We are trying to trace the owners of the vehicles. A few months ago, some ambulances were parked along the Bypass. We sent them back to their owners after tracking them. We are in the process of identifying the owners of these vehicles, too. We will inform the transport department directly regarding the bus,” said the officer.
Seized vehicles had been removed from outside Entally and Bhowanipore police stations. Last month, The Telegraph had noticed two cars on a flank of SP Mukherjee Road opposite Bhowanipore police station. The cars had dents and depressions and dozens of teacups had accumulated under them.
A goods vehicle and a few cars, lying idle for months, were found outside Entally police station last month. There were none on Sunday.
Pragati Maidan police station, which had many seized vehicles in an open area in front of it, had none on Sunday. No seized vehicles could be spotted outside Hastings police station on Sunday.
An entomologist said seized vehicles or unused cars lying in the open for months are a threat because mosquitoes can breed in the dents if water accumulates there. The Aedes aegypti mosquito, the primary transmitter of the dengue virus, can breed even in a blob of water
Mayor Firhad Hakim wrote to Kolkata’s police commissioner Vineet Goyal on June 28 saying that seized cars were still lying outside many police stations.
“You were requested to direct all police stations under your control to remove condemned vehicles impounded at various police stations and keep the place clean to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases.”
All the abandoned cars that were removed from the premises of the police stations have either been shifted to a dump yard along Sick Lane in the Port area or to a plot meant for seized vehicles along the Basanti Highway.
The third location where vehicles seized by Kolkata police are dumped is under Vidyasagar Setu.
“The site under Vidyasagar Setu is full. Hence all seized vehicles are being shifted to the other two sites for the time being,” said an officer of Kolkata police.
According to the rule, when a vehicle is seized after an accident or a stolen vehicle is recovered, it is kept outside a police station for a month or two till the owners claim the vehicle.
However, when vehicles are abandoned for more than two months with no one to claim them, they are shifted to the three dump yards designated for storing seized vehicles.