As the Home Minister listening? Is the Lt Governor of Delhi Listening.
Residents of the Capital city of the country have suffered long enough with unbearable traffic woes. Traffic represents everything that is wrong with this City. It is time to come up with- out of the box- solutions.
Some would be wondering at the omission of the Police Commissioner from the above list! Yes, it is intentional. For, seldom has the Police Commissioner been from the Delhi State in the past decade. In fact, three have not served in Delhi, though this has been the practice under successive governments. The policing issues of this city are indeed very unique.
It is little wonder that down the line traffic is the least priority. This reporter has at random tested the driving knowledge of the Constables on the road to find out if they were aware of how one drives into the ‘roundabouts’ of Delhi. Who has the ‘right of the way’ to enter the circle! More often than not, they avoided a direct answer.
Delhi traffic simply lacks management. Yes, there are issues with waterlogging, uprooted trees or breakdown of vehicles leading to congestion and everyone arriving late for whatever the appointment.
But the root cause is ‘No Traffic Police to Manage the Traffic’. Yes, they are ubiquitous only during VIP movements.
Not surprising, the police are busy collecting Challans for ‘heinous’ crimes like helmet, seat belt, wrong-side and so on. Hardly, 200 yards from this ‘funds generating exercise’ can be the biggest bottleneck, but no, the beat is to augment the coffers of the department!
Worse still, adds an eminent Journalist, authority on policing in Delhi, “you will never see them collecting challans upfront or near a road camera, they will be hiding behind some structure, to suddenly appear and stop the vehicle.” He goes on to add that even the drivers of government offices aren’t aware of the traffic rules of Delhi. The situation gets worse during the parliament session when cars from all over the country as well as taxi drivers of over-night transport companies’ takeover the Delhi Roads.
Not to mention the Ring Road which is an extension of the Highway from Lucknow to Chandigarh. Nowhere is it written, “you have entered the city-limits, adhere to city driving rules,” he noted exasperated.
Remove the ‘money making penalty model’ from the Delhi police and send them back to management should be the outcry in Delhi.
For traffic violations of red-light jumping, wrong side driving, seat belts, helmets etc, in any civilised State there are other options. These may be ‘shramdaan- charity work! Selected charities like feeding the homeless in Ranebaseras, work in Tihar Jail and many others can be worked out that actually look like punishments.
The issue of augmenting the coffers of the police department can be linked to a compulsory tax for policing the neighbourhood, including the management of traffic.
This is the model adopted by many cities, including London. The Westminster City Council tax, as an example, includes in it policing cess.
However, in view of the complexities of policing of Delhi, this cess can be collected directly by the Centre. The vehicles from outside Delhi too while crossing the city will display the token of having paid the Delhi police/ road-safety tax.
With the removal of the responsibility of ‘making money’ for the ‘department’, there will be no option for the Force but to manage the traffic.
