You are on your way to the office taking the route you do every day. But you are forced to an abrupt halt because a pandal has appeared bang in the middle of the road, an obstacle that was not there the day before.
This is not an uncommon experience for Bangaloreans. A marriage at home or a house warming ceremony, many people think it their right to carry their private function to the public space of the road by putting up pandals for a day or two to entertain people and serve lunch. Some go so far as to dig holes on the concrete road to erect metal poles.
There are hardly any instances of complaints being filed against such encroachment of the public space.
Most people are compelled to see it as a “brief inconvenience” to be put up with in a friendly “neighbourhood spirit”.
The traffic police, however, say that putting up pandals and blocking traffic movement amounts to violation of law unless the individual or the organisation gets permission from the concerned authority.
“Anyone wishing to pitch a tent or put up a pandal mandatorily needs to get permission failing which he or she could be booked under Section 31 of the Karnataka Police Act,” said B. Dayanand, Additional Commissioner of Police.
He also said that such instances had not come to his notice in the recent past as they were usually dealt at the station levels.