Berhampur: Grappling with manpower crunch, police have decided to rope in college students as volunteers to assist traffic personnel here. The programme will be part of the Students' Traffic Volunteers Scholarship Scheme.
"We have selected 100 students from five colleges, which includes Khallikote College, Sashi Bhushan Rath Women's College, Mahamayee Women's College, City College and Binayak Acharya College, for the purpose,"" said additional superintendent of police, Berhampur, Shantanu Kumar Das.
The volunteers will be given a stipend of Rs 100 per day. Out of 100 students, only 60 would be asked to volunteer for duty everyday, he said.
"However, a student cannot be on duty for more than 15 days a month. Every six month new group of students will be recruited to continue the process," said Das.
Assigned to work under a constable, the volunteers would be provided with identity cards and dress code.
"The selected students are undergoing specialised practical training at Khallikote College playground for a week. The volunteers are being imparted three-day theory and four-day practical training. The orientation programme will help them know the rules and assist our men in a proper way. The student volunteers are expected to be ready for deployment by January 6 or 7," said DSP, traffic, Nirad Palei.
"At present, the traffic wing is functioning with 54 constables, 6 havildars, 35 home guards and 25 personnel of the Odisha Auxiliary Police Force. This is not enough to manage the ever-increasing traffic volume on the roads. Besides regulating vehicle movement at intersections, we need to enforce traffic rules elsewhere in the city. We also conduct special drives against violators," Palei said.
The volunteers will help the police to deploy traffic personnel at locations where there are none, Palei said.
"At present, we depute three or four traffic cops at a busy traffic junction. With the deployment of volunteers, we can withdraw at least two cops from a traffic post and deploy them at new locations. It will address problem of staff shortage," he said. Das said 114 persons had been killed last year in road accidents in Berhampur police district.
