GUWAHATI: The story of traffic cop Mithun Das standing amid heavy rain in an uncovered podium directing traffic has not been washed away from our memories. But the situation brings to light the dire condition of traffic points in the city. There are a total of 64 traffic points in the city, which are unmanned by traffic constables.
Over the past five years there has been a noticeable lackadaisical attitude of the Guwahati Traffic Police (GTP) in enforcing traffic rules strictly. Changing the uniform colours and getting leaner men cannot be a solution to traffic jams, if they hang onto their phones during peak working hours. Cars, buses and bikes stop and parked anywhere which way they wish and GTP says nothing about it. For example, if GTP had made it a rule to wear helmets and seat-belts, then they should also make sure that people are following these rules. There should be strict monitoring in place, not just piecemeal.
To make situations worse, the traffic lights in most of the traffic points do not work. The constables find it hard to control the traffic, especially during the night, when most accidents occur. The constables are not visible to the commuters and with the traffic lights not working, various areas in the city that see high congestion, report accidents.
The ABC traffic point is in the middle of the city and sees the maximum number of traffic in the city, but even at this point, the lights are standing damaged for more than a year now. City dwellers have complained about inconvenience in crossing the road at night due to the broken signal. “I have witnessed various accidents during rush hours in this area and it is all because the riders, who are always in a rush do not see the traffic constable at night and with the broken lights, even hit pedestrians crossing the road sometimes”, said Rajendra Ray, a resident of Tarun Nagar, ABC.
Now, it remains to be seen as to when the government will start getting conscious about the frequent road mishaps and mend these broken traffic signals. Until then, driving safely and being careful at traffic points are the only solutions that remain.
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