With the month-long awareness campaign on road safety and traffic rules taken up by the city police with the involvement of different sections of the society coming to an end, Commissioner of Police P.S.R. Anjaneyulu on Saturday made it clear that enforcement of traffic rules and regulations would begin in right earnest after Dasara celebrations.
The valedictory of the campaign will be held on Monday evening, which will be attended by Indian Idol Sriram Chandra, he disclosed.
Addressing a traffic awareness meeting organised for the members of Andhra Loyola College Walkers Association by The Hindu in association with the city police and Maxivision Eye Hospital, Mr. Anjaneyulu said that a suggestion that came up during the campaign to assign traffic duties to violators of road rules, especially youngsters, was being seriously considered.
The Commissioner said that it was a mammoth task to take up research in ‘traffic engineering' but this would be done to deal with the increasing number of vehicles and traffic problems in the city. In response to a large number of complaints from the gathering on day to day traffic problems, he said that though traffic problems in Vijayawada were not as severe as in cities like Hyderabad, there were issues that needed to be addressed because Vijayawada was an “evolving” city.
He felt that usage of public transport was the best solution for the growing traffic problems and the people here could take a cue from the foreigners' discipline in following traffic norms.
‘Deploy constables'
The gathering drew the attention of the Commissioner to several traffic problems and issues, including the tendency of APSRTC drivers to halt buses right in the middle of the road, overloading of auto-rickshaws, lack of markings on speed-breakers, encroachment of footpaths by hawkers and rash and negligent driving of bikes by youngsters. A few members requested the Commissioner to deploy traffic constables at important junctions and school zones.
The other major issue discussed was the problem of lack of parking space in many areas. Mr. Anjaneyulu pointed out that many apartments built or coming up in the city had no sufficient parking slot for vehicles and this was forcing the residents and guests to park their vehicles on the roads, adding to the chaos.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) A.V. Ramana, ALC Walkers' Association president Ch. Nagabhushanam, vice-president S.A. Naidu, The Hindu Regional General Manager K. Chandrasekaran and others were present on the occasion.
The day also saw a motorbike rally being organised by the city police as part of the traffic awareness campaign. The rally, taken out mainly by 150 constables of civil and traffic police wearing helmets and a few members of the general public, highlighted the importance of following traffic norms. Mr. Ramana inaugurated the rally at A.R. Grounds.
