The vehicle traffic system is all set to have a face-lift in the steel city as the district police's traffic wing is on a revamping mode.
The steps being taken by the traffic wing are aimed at removing some pitfalls in the existing system which causes the commuters as well as the commercial vehicle operators in unwanted trouble.
Revealing about the steps, Babban Singh, the deputy superintendent of police (Traffic) who joined the district police recently said that vehicular traffic system should be people-friendly and not just to extort penalty from the violators of the traffic rules.
“To begin with the important roads, exit or entry points and strategic locations will have to be equipped with sign-boards of ‘No Entry’, ‘No Parking’ and rates of penalties, something which is nowhere to be seen in the steel city. Once such sign-boards are installed at the strategic points, the vehicle riders will follow them and will tend to make no violation in the traffic rules,” said Singh while talking to The Telegraph Online.
The new traffic DSP who joined the East Singhbhum district police just on Monday said that he came to know about how the vehicle riders have to face difficulties without the necessary sign-board when he dealt with a case involving a car-owner coming from Bengal recently.
“A family boarded in a car having West Bengal's registration number had wrongfully been parked along the Bistupur Main Road on Wednesday. After an altercation between the car driver and some traffic cops, the matter reached my notice. The traffic cops wanted to penalize the car driver for parking wrongfully. On reaching the spot, I inquired but found no sign-board displaying ‘No parking’ around where the car was parked. I immediately let the car driver go from the spot as he was not at fault, and then only I decided the important roads where there are undeclared no-parking zones in place should be equipped with the sign-boards,” informed the traffic DSP.
Singh pointed out there was not a single sign-board displaying ‘No-entry’ at the exit or entry points of the city.
"If the ‘No-entry’ boards are put at the entry points with the ‘No-entry’ timing prominently, hardly any driver will violate the traffic rules. We have, therefore, decided to put up a huge sign-board for displaying the ‘No-entry’ timing at all the entry points like Dimna Chowk, Pardih Chowk in Mango, Sundarnagar and Kharkai bridge in Bistupur as well as the newly set up Domuhani bridge in Sonari soon, so that the drivers of the heavy commercial vehicles which come from other states may not have to face difficulty to enter into the city,” the senior police officer said.
Singh also informed that they would install five huge sign-boards regarding the penalties that the traffic department charges for violating the traffic rules.
“The traffic police continue to carry out drives like helmet checking, seat-belt checking, etc. But the vehicle owners are not aware of the extent of the penalty they are supposed to pay. And such vehicle owners do come to know about the extent of a penalty after they are caught during such traffic checking drive only. But if there are prominent sign-boards displaying the amount of penalty to be charged, then it will definitely put a positive effect on the vehicle owners,” the traffic DSP said.
Significantly, an insider in the traffic police said, “The authority concerned in the traffic police evaded to put up any sign-board because they wanted to keep pitfalls in the system so as to have an advantage over vehicle operators, especially the ones coming from other states. If there were sign-boards displaying ‘No-entry’ or ‘No parking’, then such vehicle operators will not make mistakes, and the cops will be able to extort the ‘penalty’.”
