Plan to recruit traffic wardens in Chennai yet to take off

By S.Shivakumar

CHENNAI, AUG. 1. The widely publicised drive to have more traffic wardens to improve the city's traffic scenario is yet to take off in a big way.

Shoppers struggle to walk and school children wade through a sea of vehicles every day around their institutions.

The poor profile of the city's traffic policing has made the role of wardens more important. The police claim that their manpower is inadequate to handle the traffic management, while the vehicle population is growing alarmingly fast - now over 11 lakhs.

The high pollution levels, congestion and indiscipline among motorists are taking their toll on the traffic police personnel manning various intersections.

The much-publicised drive for recruitment of wardens a few months ago by the city police was expected to increase their visibility and performance, but this has not happened.

The focus has, therefore, turned on whether more wardens can be recruited, and whether there is enough motivation among those chosen.

The khaki uniform of the traffic wardens is similar to the one worn by senior police officers with many of them also sporting blue decorative shoulder stripes, similar to those of senior police officers.

Traffic planners point out that wardens could play an effective role in ensuring safety near school zones. However, at present, a majority of schools have no effective regulation to help students.

The major problems include increasing number of vehicles parked near school zones, violation of one-way regulation and a lack of proper civic infrastructure that exposes the Chennai Corporation's indifference. It is common to find vehicles parked haphazardly on the Casa Major Road throughout the day, despite the presence of a police constable. Theagaraya Road is virtually blocked opposite Nagesh Theatre during school hours. Alagirisamy Road in K.K.Nagar the one-way regulation is violated mostly by autorickshaws with impunity.

While it is pointed out that the traffic wardens are facing a shortage of manpower and they are engaged on a recruitment drive, their selection process has also come in for scrutiny.

Critics say only those who have some social status, such as business are roped in. The reason given by inside sources is that if the unwritten rule is relaxed, there will always be the possibility of traffic wardens misusing their power. However, retired Defence officers and those with some community involvement could be recruited, others contend.

The Chief Traffic Warden, Mr. Joseph George, says there is an increase in the number of wardens manning the intersections. There are about 150 active wardens. They are concentrating on imparting traffic education in schools. Classes are being conducted in schools and students enrolled for Road Safety Patrol. In all, 6000 students are being covered under this programme in 70 schools.

But then, the services of the wardens are available only one day in a week, even for the worst policed areas, like T.Nagar's shopping district.

The Deputy Chief Traffic Warden, Mr. Azim Ahamed, says ``we have the work divided into six zones similar to the police jurisdiction. The work schedule for each warden is sent one month in advance. Each warden has to spend a minimum of two hours a week, however they usually devote six to eight hours for regulating traffic.

Denying any bias in the selection process, he says the formalities include that the applicant is an IT assessee and has a telephone.

He said the service was only on a voluntary basis and they were on the look-out for more wardens.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Sudhagaran gets interim bail
Next     : Chennai airport: Jayalalithaa seeks PM's
           intervention