Coimbatore City Traffic Police and their counterparts in the Coimbatore Rural Police have been taking concerted efforts to improve road discipline, prevent accidents and bring down crime.
For the Coimbatore City Traffic Police the introduction of the hand-held e-challan machine has made it easy for sub inspectors to penalise traffic rules violators by handing over e-challans within minutes of the offence.
All that the officers on duty will have to do is to choose the right button for the right offence on the hand-held machine to issue the challan.
This ensures that the violators are not charged for wrong offence; the Police say and add that there are a host of benefits.
Upon punching in the number of the vehicle involved in the offence on the hand-held machine, the officers on duty will be able to identify within minutes if the vehicle number is right or wrong, as the machine will display the chassis and engine number. It will also display ownership and other details that are in the registration certificate.
Similarly, when the officers on duty keys in the license number, they will in no time get to know if it is genuine or fake.
Plus, the officers can easily identify repeat offenders as the machine will also display the information and that helps officers increase penalty. They say that since the introduction of the machine in April this year, the traffic sub inspectors in the city have collected Rs. 50 lakh in fine.
If modernisation is the CCTP’s mantra, for the Coimbatore Rural Police it’s effective enforcement on the road by adopting the ‘Operation Gold’ project. Superintendent of Police P. Sudhakar says that the during the implementation of ‘Operation Gold’ the force at his command will begin enforcement drive at specified locations across the district to check a variety of offences – drunken driving, over speeding, driving without necessary documents, etc.
In the past 17 month of its implementation, the Coimbatore Rural Police have been not only able to reduce accidents but also arrest a number of accused who had been evading law for quite sometime, he says and points out that the number of deaths in road accident has come down from 744 in 2012 to 678 in 2013. This year, as of May 31, the number of deaths stands at 277.
The Police have also ensured law and order by arresting trouble makers and notorious elements during ‘Operation Gold’, which usually lasts for four hours or more hours depending on the time and day. If it’s weekend, the operation goes on for longer hours.