Mumbai police commissioner Dr Satyapal Singh patiently listened to several complaints put forth by Juhu locals, including members of the Juhu Scheme Resident Asso-ciation, who raised issues like soliciting, illegal food stalls leading to illegal parking, less police personnel and an active gang of women robbers. Dr Singh interacted with them for over an hour at the Juhu police station as part of the weekly Grievance Redressal Day on Saturday morning.
Dr Singh and the locals came to a consensus over a suggestion to curb fare refusals by rickshaws. The residents would be writing to Andheri RTO asking them to create a unique logo to ascertain that the rickshaws running in the Juhu-Andheri belt are legal.
A resident of VM Road also told Dr Singh, “Hundreds of prostitutes indulge in soliciting openly, but due to efforts of the Juhu police, the soliciting has been pushed back from evening to the late hours of the night. It is particularly noticed on VM Road near Mithibai College and Juhu Tara Road near Palm Grove Hotel. We don’t let our girls go out at night due to this problem.”
“Illegal food stalls and some hawkers cover the area around a bus stop near Mithibai College. People park their cars in a haphazard manner, due to which the BEST buses halt next to the divider, thereby leading to traffic congestion,” said Pritesh Jain, another Juhu local.
Dr Singh asked senior inspector of Juhu, Arun Bhagat and the traffic inspector to strictly deal with the issues. An officer said, “We have strongly dealt with the soliciting problem, forcing prostitutes to migrate, but it is difficult to put a complete end to it.”
Other issues raised were 65 manhole covers being robbed in the Gulmohar area, quick installation of CCTV cameras, noise pollution and fake complaints made by women.