Piled up seized vehicles creating problems for residents to be auctioned off

Vehicles are parked haphazardly around the civil supplies-CID office and the office compound too is packed with seized two-wheelers, making it impossible to enter the office. The two gates to the office are blocked, and the sides of the building too are occupied by such vehicles.

According to K Kannabiran, a local resident, “Haphazardly parked vehicles on the small road lead to problems during peak hours.” Also, tyres and several parts of many of the vehicles were reportedly missing and the lack of security was to blame for this.

While cranes were used to stack vehicles atop each other, lack of space was also witnessed in a park in Thiruvenkadanagar, which was being used to park vehicles. “What is the use of having a park as the locality’s lung space when it is encroached by officials,” fumed another resident, who chose to remain anonymous. Also, while the main gate of the park was locked, its fencing had fallen on one side, allowing anybody easy ingress.

The heavy creeper growth covering a seized lorry revealed that the vehicle has been in the same spot for years. According to locals, students returning from school often pelted stones and broke glass panes of parked vehicles.

When asked about this, official sources said, “Some months ago, as many as 40 vehicles were auctioned. Now, moves are afoot to auction another 300 vehicles, including 70 four wheelers.”

Accepting that prolonged exposure reduced the value of vehicles, officials said, “The process takes nearly three months. Only now top district officials are pressing those in Chennai to clear the decks for auction. Earlier, there was a slackness when it came to this, which resulted in seized vehicles piling up.”

However, police lamented that while they worked round the clock to clear such backlog, the same could not be said of the RTOs and automobile engineers who had to fix the vehicles’ value.

The civil supplies-CID accepted that delayed auctions would reduce the anticipated income from such vehicles as they would only be fit for scrap. This has been a state-wide issue which has been neglected for long. “Only now officials are realising that timely auctions are a must if the state coffers are to benefit,” sources added.