Students take part in traffic awareness programme at Kalinga Hospital Square in Bhubaneswar on Thursday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Jan 16: Police are involving students, film personalities and theatre groups to increase traffic awareness as part of its road safety week celebrations, but out on the street violation rules.

Triple riding on two-wheelers, not wearing helmets, wrong lane driving, scant regard for zebra crossings and traffic lights, talking on mobile phone while at the wheels and drink driving are the norm rather than an exception in the city.

Use of black films on car windowpanes, funky number plates and high decibel horns are also being used widely in violation of motor vehicle norms.

“Youngsters driving recklessly without wearing helmets and overtaking other vehicles dangerously is a common sight here. They also use horns that produce high decibel sound, but the traffic cops rarely act” said Sarthak Parida, a businessman from Baramunda. Debendra Kanungo of Patia echoed Parida. He said that despite an increase in the number of policemen at Kalinga Hospital Square, which has been declared a zero tolerance zone, bikers could be seen violating the traffic signals.

“Traffic cops remain mute spectators,” said Kanungo.

As the man on the street suffers from many of these violations, the police are drawing the flak for not trying to develop the infrastructure required for effective traffic management.

Basic jobs such as having zebra crossings at most of the traffic squares or painting the ones that have faded are not undertaken.

Similarly, it is a common sight here that automatic traffic signals at the junctions often do not function and trigger chaos on the road.

“We see the police collecting fines for not wearing helmets, but other incidents of violation are ignored,” said Dibakar Rao, who works for a private firm.

Rao said that many people drive on the wrong side of the road thus putting the lives of others in jeopardy.

Riding two-wheelers without wearing helmets and talking on mobile phone are common practice in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Quoting statistics, sources in the police said, that around 650 cases of road accidents happen in the city every year and nearly 200 lives are lost in these mishaps.

Traffic officials, however, prefer to pass buck on commuters and motorists for such large number of mishaps and deaths on city roads every year. A traffic cop said that though they had been enforcing the rules, the people should be more sincere in honouring them.

“We are trying our best to create awareness among people about road safety, but they need to follow rules. People should know that traffic policemen are their friends. Awareness is better than enforcement,” said Binod Dash, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) in charge of traffic.

Despite the violations and the people’s complaint of inaction, the traffic wing of the city police is celebrating road safety week since Tuesday with much fanfare.

While a temporary traffic park has been set up behind the traffic police station at AG Square for schoolchildren to learn road safety rules, competitions have been held on the occasion to create awareness among the kids.

On the first day, Odia filmstar Sabyasachi Mishra had attended the programme and distributed leaflets carrying messages on road safety.

A photography exhibition is also being held to showcase accidents and incidents of traffic violations.

The police are also using the medium of street plays with artistes from Sambalpur and Ganjam highlighting the need to follow traffic rules.

Promising to discipline city streets, Dash said that they would continue to crack the whip on violators and at the same time take steps to create awareness among the people.

“We have been enforcing traffic rules regularly. The offenders are being fined. However, it’s not possible to keep tabs on every individual. So such awareness programmes are important,” he said.