AARYAN SHARMA
JAMMU: Facing criticism from all quarters for remaining mute spectators and going soft on violations committed by the Matador drivers, the State Traffic Police Department is yet to launch a drive against the violators but on Wednesday District Police authorities woke up from their deep slumber and launched a special drive to seize music systems blaring out jarring sound from their loudspeakers on the move.
However, the crackdown planned by the cops turned out to be ‘too little too late’ as similar drives launched in the past have failed to yield fruitful results.
A total number of 87 music and sound system were seized by the cops during the day-long drive at Nowabad.
Ever since a school going girl was crushed to death by the over speeding Matador driver near Poonch House in Taalb Tiloo area, pressure was mounting on the policemen to crack down on traffic violators.
The civil society in Jammu was furious as they have been silently watching the open loot at the cost of risking lives of common people who travel from one place to another on the public transport system.
On the other hand, the traffic cops may have been booking violators for different violations but largely they have been keeping their eyes shut for reasons best known to them and ignoring major violations and incidents of over loading, over speeding, non use of uniforms, fitness check of vehicles and pollution control etc.
Instead of cracking down on the violators in a big way, when men in khaki launched the special drive the passengers termed it a ‘token exercise’ primarily organised to ‘befool’ the common public.
The passengers charged, “The traffic cops have not been able to discipline reckless drivers and are often seen succumbing to the tantrums thrown by the abusive drivers and cleaners”.
There is already a general impression among the local residents in Jammu that traffic cops brazenly shield drivers and cleaners and book challans for petty violations. On the other hand, the senior policemen claimed the menace of traffic violations cannot be checked overnight. A sustained awareness and long term planning and capacity building exercise is needed to bring all stake holders together to ensure better management of the traffic and bringing down the rate of accidents on the overcrowded roads of Jammu.
