Commissioner of Greater Chennai Police Shankar Jiwal on Thursday said steps have been taken to reduce the number of road accidents and fatalities.
Mr. Jiwal inaugurated an office for the Traffic Warden Organisation on the premises of his office. Kapil Kumar C. Saratkar, Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic, was present.
The wardens are drawn from various backgrounds such as engineers, doctors, and self-employed and are appointed by the Commissioner. The traffic warden organisation is headed by chief traffic warden M. Harish Metha, who is assisted by four deputy chief traffic wardens.
At present, there are 142 traffic wardens in Chennai and 24 more, including three women, have been recently selected and are undergoing training. They do regular duty at various traffic junctions on weekends.
Task force
Later, Mr. Jiwal told reporters that the Chief Minister had constituted a special task force on road safety and it would be converted as road safety authority. He said 104 hotspots had been identified where frequent road accidents were reported. Engineers from highways, police personnel with knowledge of accident spots, officials from the Greater Chennai Corporation and experts from IIT conducted a study. He said after assessing their survey, the police would take action.
Mr. Jiwal said: “We are doing targeted enforcement. Compared to previous year, the accident rate had decreased by 20% till August.” The city police has been remanding unruly college students who indulge in violent acts enroute to their colleges.
About the criticism of Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K. Palaniswami about murders in the city, Mr. Jiwal said the offences such as murder could not be completely prevented in an urban scenario. “However, there is 20% reduction in murder cases till August this year compared to last year. We are taking consistent steps such as preventive action and detentions and there is no leniency in our action,” he said.
