After a gap of two years, traffic wardens will return to important junctions in the city to regulate weekend traffic.
The Tamil Nadu Police Traffic Warden Organisation was formed in 1977. The wardens are of various backgrounds. They are appointed by the Commissioner of Police/the Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic, in the limits of the Greater Chennai Police.
The organisation is headed by the chief traffic warden, who is assisted by four deputy chief traffic wardens, one each for the north, south, east and west zones. The zones are further divided into ranges. Each range is headed by a senior duty planning officer and a duty planning officer.
At present, there are 145 traffic wardens in the city. They do regular duty at various junctions at weekends, regulating traffic and ensuring road discipline among the road-users. They also assist the police during night checks for drunk driving and security duties for New Year’s Eve, festivals, elections and VVIP visits.
Another important activity of the organisation is road safety patrols. About 470 schools have been registered under this programme and more than 18,500 students have been enrolled. Cadets are enrolled annually from corporation and private schools.
Various programmes are conducted from time to time by the organisation to drive home the importance of wearing helmets and seat belts, following traffic rules and observing road discipline.
System revived
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Pradip Kumar said that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the services of the traffic wardens were not utilised for close to two years, except during the Assembly election. Now that the situation has improved, the system has been revived on the instruction of Commissioner of Police Shankar Jiwal.
The traffic wardens will be deployed at important junctions for weekend traffic regulation, and during festivals. After the schools are reopened, their services will be utilised for road safety patrol cadet enrolment, the conduct of road safety awareness programmes and traffic regulation in front of important schools, according to a press release.
