Delhi: Security and convenience on opposite sides of barricades

NEW DELHI: On Kanshi Ram Takkar Marg near Kalkaji in south Delhi, people use the police road barricades to dry their laundry.
“These barricades have been here for several years and the locals make good use of them,” smiled a hawker, who had similarly hung several of his packets of potato chips from the barricade. In some places, the empty area on either side of the barricades are used by people to park their cars and motorcycles. That’s the irony of the metal barricades that the cops put up on roads. Most of these are regarded as inconveniences because they are frequently unmanned or set up in a manner that hampers movement of people and vehicles.
On Bipin Chandra Pal Marg, there are barricades near the Rajesh Pilot Park. Two of these meshed frames were lying on the main road, some others on the other side of the road. Jaihind, a regular commuter, said, “You can see that two vehicles cannot easily pass each other on this road just because of poor barricading.” Not only were cars parked illegally on the stretch, despite the assumption that barricades are manned by police personnel, but cheekily enough, a mechanic shop runs unhindered behind one of the barricades.
Across Chittaranjan Park, Kalkaji, Greater Kailash, Pamposh Enclave and South Extension, one runs into these police barricades. The placement of these yellow roadblocks reduces the width of the roads and commuters face a lot of trouble while travelling. When TOI drove along the roads on Tuesday, it discovered that the right to smooth progress is challenged by these purported security measures.
Near the Shivalik complex, just beyond Kalkaji, the road barricades were placed in such a way as to allow only one car to pass at a time. Four of the metallic structures barred the passage leaving only a narrow inlet for commuters. Mahavir, a commuter, said that there are often big traffic snarls on the stretch because of this.
A little further away, near a government school in the Kalkaji area, a few barricades were lying on the road and had a long queue of parked vehicles behind them. It was the same at a spot in South Extension Part I. Near the bus stand at Pamposh Enclave, the barriers impeded the traffic with the cops not caring a bit.
Residents of Chittaranjan Park said that police closed the roads in the area from 11pm to 5am to deter car thieves. Motorists drive on a longer route to reach their homes. According to police, the barricades are erected at night to curb crime. Esha Pandey, DCP (South-East), said police did not close off the entire area. “We block entries to localities at night to curb crime. We also change the timings of the pickets to catch criminals by surprise,” she said.
But asked why in many instances the barricades aren’t removed from the roads in the morning, an officer replied that this was to prevent snatchers from targeting morning walkers.