By Satish Samant
Inching towards a population that keeps proliferating year after year,,the capital city Bhubaneswar appear caught in a difficult juncture where vehicles on the road are on the rise, traffic sense among the commuters is overshadowed by recklessness and dire shortage of official manpower to regulate it, things worsen manifold.
On the side lines, the top authorities in the police department remain pathetically unconcerned to the growing problems. By an estimation, at present, in this city,lakhs of vehicles move on the roads. It is a gigantic task for the traffic department without a matching traffic personnel on the ground.
Problems keep shooting up manifold and it is the duty of the police and the administration to ensure a smooth regulation which is missing.
Besides the increase in number of vehicles, whether four wheels or two wheels, what adds to the problem is the chaotic attitude of people on the roads and the surrounding cacophony.
What is quite visible that there is a dearth of uniformed traffic personnel and the existing number is so less to handle the traffic chaos at many important junctions. ‘ There is a pressing need for increase in traffic manpower and also volunteers in a city like Bhubaneswar’ a traffic officer said requesting anonymity. What can be gathered that, traffic volunteers can be a real help but there seems little effort to rope in as many volunteers required.
Well, all the blames cannot be laid at the doors of the authorities. A close observation reveal that, reckless driving by some, speeding bikers without helmet, talking on the mobile phone while driving and no fear of the rule complicates the problem. Majority accidents take place mainly due to rash driving.
At many traffic junctions it is a common sight that the cops usually hound on bikers without helmets and remain unconcerned towards other violations. To avoid the legal clutches, many violators allegedly choose to pay underhand and get free. A kind of situation that comes easy for both the sides.
Another coaxing problem is illegal parking of vehicles and wrong side driving. A fair amount of awareness is what missing.
Working of traffic personnel shoulder to shoulder with traffic volunteers adds a lot towards control and ward off untoward incidents.
What is also important to keep in mind the stress of traffic personnel in a very hot and humid climate for over eight hours and they far exceed their schedule while there are Assembly sessions and the consequent rallies and demonstrations.
.”Apparently ,during busy hours restlessness is evident with cops .To perform competently, we need fresh recruits “ said a traffic inspector requesting anonymity.
It is a problem which is born out of several factors and in the absence of a mechanism to address it, the challenges also multiply and one never known when one is out of home, whether would be back home safe. It is not difficult to imagine as what would be the situation after five years from now.
(Satish Samant is a freelance journalist )
