In a move that is leading to severe harassment of motorists in Hyderabad, senior officers in the traffic police wing have been instructing their subordinates to issue more challans to motorists every day.
Field-level sub-inspectors are being issued with charge memos if they book less than 50 cases of traffic violations in a day. As a result, the field staff is focussing more on flagging down motorists and issuing challans rather than concentrating on traffic regulations. At some junctions, an incongruous situation can be seen where a group of constables are busy signalling motorists to pull over, while totally neglecting their duty of regulating traffic.
Traffic officers confide that many of them have received memos from higher ups saying that their performance was under par if they booked below 50 cases a day. Faced with no other option but to comply with the orders, the policemen are forced to slap penalties even for minor violations. This action is undoubtedly filling the exchequer but is also doling out pure harassment to motorists. Instructions to increase number of cases booked is cleverly concealed in oral instructions issued on wireless sets too. The targets for imposition of fines are not referred to directly in writing.
The officers, though, do confide in private conversations that they are facing the flak from commuters. They also agree that what they are being forced to do is annoying even for themselves.
“Many commuters argue with us as to why we're stopping vehicles and verifying documents, ignoring our duty of clearing traffic congestions. We have no answer,” a sub-inspector said. He feels some officers take pride in collecting more amounts of fines than the previous officer, and that has become a trend.
While the traffic policemen feel helpless, the commuters complain of indiscriminate imposition of fines. Two days ago, the Begumpet traffic police took away the table of an agent selling books on roadside in Brahmanwadi. “When I told them that the table, which was on an internal road, didn't obstruct traffic in any way, they scribbled a challan of fine,” the agent, Narsimha, recalls.
With orders from the top to improve performance in enforcing the law, such instances are common and they may increase despite adverse reaction from people, a police officer observes.
Keywords: traffic police, traffic management
Flagging over should be done for violations and not for filling coffers.In Hyderabad I have seen SIs just noting car numbers when waiting for signal without crossing the prohibited line. I have faced this myself in mediciti junction when coming from Lakadikapul.I have also seen this happen at Ravindra Bharati junction, coming from Secretariat and also ahead of Upkaar Sweekar Junction towards Paradise.
Flagging cars may have a success rate of 10-15%, if the owner is not carrying papers, which is unlikely in the current traffic scenario. Let the Police concentrate on violations and wrong parkings, instead.
Absolute Non sense ...when will we change ? we forget the fundamentals of Traffic regulations and maintenance and indulge more on revenue generation to fill the Pockets of Sr Officers and Ministers..My Wife who was an officer in a certain department / ministry used to tell that they have direct instructions from none other than the Chief Minister that they need to deposit a certain amount to the treasurery !!
I stay in Hyderabad and totally agree that police here are causing more nuisance
to bikers for easy money than controlling traffic.
Police here are more focused on stopping bikers to fine them even if
that means they have to come on to the middle of the road and forcefully
stop the bike (while the traffic light is green). Would police take
responsibility if that leads to an accident? I don't think so.
Strangely, police here do not stop cars with same pro-activeness as they do
for bikes, its as if they take it for granted that bikers are the offenders
and persons who drive cars have all documents in place.
Another great move by the government. Yes, we need to understand that traffic rules are there for our safety. Violating traffic rules are not joke. It is absolute necessity to obey the traffic rules. There is nothing there to bargain on whether a violation is minor or major. It is the very correct approach taken by the higher authorities. If they don’t have this kind of internal untold rules like 50 challans/day it will be obvious that the constables will be filling their pocket with corrupt money. At least I am proved in this case the challaned the money will go to the government which can be used to improve the roads. Only in India you can see that highly educated people shamelessly jump red signal. If they don’t the motorist behind will horn as if not jumping red is a big mistake…If this is what the practice is this move by government is the very correct. It is of necessity of the time that highly educated people need to be educated how to behave on road.
It is easy for us to comment that they are not doing their work and
all that. Majority of todays commuters do break rules. Either because
they are in hurry, or they dont care or it is usual to break rules in
that part of area. Also our Traffic police lack the kind of equipment,
training, power to take serious action except to write challan. How
many time the traffic police can tell people to follow rules? Even if
he 'polices' 1000 people, there is always a 1001 st person ready to
violate the rule. And the poor police man give us. And there is a
systemic failure.
We people give little respect to the fellow. People lack confidence
and respect for country's laws. We people only care for the local MLA,
CM etc powerful people, try to get benefits by making them larger than
law. Our selfish behavior is making things bad. And i really dont see
things turning for better.
Traffic constables flagging down motorists on busy roads only leads to
more congestion and unnecessary complaints like this. All traffic
constables must be given cameras and speed guns instead of challan
books. They can take pictures of offenders and later fine them based on
the license number. This leads to less congestion because of flagging
down and there is also proof of offenders.
In a way, it helps. This will force motorists to follow the rules - not
to run over a signal, not to drive on footpaths, not using helmets,
driving triplets.
Title of the article is misleading. Why does the author think that
giving challans is not a way of enforcing regulations. What's wrong
in giving challans for mistakes. Agreed that clearing traffic
congestion is important, but preventing mistakes by giving more
challans is equally important, if not more. In long term, it is going
to help reduce congestion too.
During my last visit to India, a year ago, I stayed few days in
Kolkata before coming home to Hyd. The difference between traffic
behavior in Kolkata and Hyd surprised me more than that of between
USA and India. In Kolkata traffic is bad mainly because of poor
infrastructure, but in Hyd it is bad mainly because of the people
behavior. It is a highly welcoming move by Hyd traffic police if they
have really started setting daily targets for challans. It is a time-
tested successful formula to improve traffic conditions, and I hope
to see some improvement in Hyd traffic during my next Hyd trip in two
months.
Though I appreciate you covering this, I don't understand how you even
can print the following
"While the traffic policemen feel helpless, the commuters complain of
indiscriminate imposition of fines. Two days ago, the Begumpet traffic
police took away the table of an agent selling books on roadside in
Brahmanwadi. “When I told them that the table, which was on an internal
road, didn't obstruct traffic in any way, they scribbled a challan of
fine,” the agent, Narsimha, recalls.
"
I mean the main road or side road, none of them is meant for putting
up a local temporary shop isn't? putting these stmts almost conveys
that you are supporting this particular case..
Driving in India is has become so bad bcos no one has any scant
regards for the rules, so I strong support what the police is doing
here and urge them to continue doing so. I mean why should any one be
pulled over and fined if they have not done anything wrong on the road.
Some things are very obvious...
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