The Twin City Commissionerate police (CP) which had earlier put restrictions on activities of various organisations on public roads and charged a fee to issue licences have also from January 2018 included social activity organisations in the list.
The CP has included social bodies in the list of organisations, which cannot hold awareness programmes on the public roads under the Commissionerate jurisdiction without depositing the tariff amount and an indemnity bond. This has been opposed by the social organisations whose primary responsibility is to develop awareness among the people on many burning issues in the society.
Sources said that a State-level road safety organisation, Sankhadwani Rasta Surakhya Samiti, had applied for a licence in the Licence Cell of the Commissionerate police to hold an awareness programme on road safety on occasion of the Road Safety Week a couple of days back. The Samiti was asked to deposit an indemnity bond along with Rs 100 towards treasury challan or IPO to have licence for the road safety awareness programme.
This illogical demand by police from an NGO which has been working on road safety in public interest and as a component of the police Commissionerate police activities has raised many questions. The Supreme Court guidelines say that an indemnity bond may be demanded for an organisation which damages public and private properties.
Social organisations, which are working for public cause, should not be brought under this category and charged a fee as they pose no threat to public property, said Sankhadwani Rasta Surakhya Samiti secretary Prakash Mohapatra.