Fourteen hours a day is par for the course for Delhi Police Traffic Inspector, Bhaskar Sharma, but he has to do this to ensure that the wheels keep moving in North-West Delhi’s Ashok Vihar.
This is one of Delhi’s busiest stretches for road traffic. The Pioneer’s team of reporters spent the day at Prem Bari Chowk on Delhi’s arterial inner Ring Road with Sharma, seeing how the traffic police manage the busy task of ensuring that traffic keeps moving and the thankless job of handing out fines and challans to wayward motorists.
In collaboration with Hyundai India’s “Be The Better Guy” programme, where people are urged to be the better guy on the road and follow traffic rules, we tried to delve into the working lives of those who monitor and minimise the chaos on Delhi’s roads.
On Thursday morning, we reached the Prem Bari Chowk, one of 11 points in the Ashok Vihar traffic zone, where alongside Sharma there were five other traffic police personnel. Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), Mange Ram Tyagi, ASI Kartar Singh, Head Constable Anirudh, Constable Ajay and Constable Naresh, equipped with body cameras, hand cameras and challan issuing machine, were deployed at every corner of the crossroads.
Duty starts at eight in the morning with a briefing at the Keshavpuram Police Station, but even before that the policemen have started their run. On their way to the briefing they drive past the major traffic junctions of the area to ensure that everything is working and there are no holdups and snarls before the morning rush hour starts at 8 am.
“We always take a round of our designated area to make sure there is no accident on the road and all red lights are functioning well. Office goers start around 8 am so we have to make sure traffic flow is smooth and free,” said Mange Ram.
“During peak hours, from 8 am to 11 am, we avoid issuing challans as the roads are busy but we keep hawk eyes on the vehicles passing by. We are here for safety first and foremost,” said Sharma.
As Sharma was explaining their daily routine on the chowk, a Maruti WagonR, which had jumped a red light, was stopped by traffic police personnel.
The driver of the car gave the excuse that a bus was in front of him so he could not see the light but interestingly, a video of the violation was recorded on a camera and a mobile phone by Constable Naresh.
However, after showing video of the violation a challan was issued to the violator. “People who are stopped sometimes give excuses and sometimes blame police officials for bad behaviour. But now days all scenes are recorded on body worn cameras and police personnel are even using their own mobile phones to record the entire violation and conversation with the offender,” said Sharma adding that the Delhi Traffic Police issue challans not as a punishment for an offence but to ‘educate’ violators to follow rules for their own safety and the safety of others while driving.
“After the amended Motor Vehicle Act has been passed, there has been a reduction in the number of challans that we issue. Where earlier, there used to be 40-50 challans per day now the ratio has decreased to 15-20 per day. Nowadays most of the violators are people riding two-wheelers without helmets and drivers jumping red lights,” said Sharma. A positive impact of the increased fines.
Meanwhile, as the Traffic Inspector was explaining to us about the reason behind the reduction in traffic challans, a man riding a scooter without a helmet was stopped by Constable Ajay. The man directly showed a challan for not wearing helmet which was issued to him near Subhash Place. Subsequently a car was also stopped after the driver jumped the red light. The driver gave no excuse and said agreed that he had broken the light.
“Sometimes people argue and sometimes they say ‘Thank You’. These body cameras have changed the mindset of violators also. Now they know everything is being recorded,” said ASI Kartar Singh.
Meanwhile two rider on a scooter, who had helmets in their hands but they were not wearing them, were stopped by the team. The first excuse the man gave was ‘Yahi Paas Tak Jana Tha’, (had to go nearby), so didn’t wear helmet. The traffic police explained the benefits of wearing helmet and issued a challan to the violator. No luck for him then.
Till four in the afternoon around 13 challans were issued to violators and most of them were violations regarding red-light jumping and riding without a helmet. “After the new automatic cameras were installed to detect speed and other violations, the people in city have started following traffic rules,” said Divyansh, a commuter on Prem Bari road.
The days that the police put in are incredibly long, their duty ends up 10 at night but during the rush of wedding season, sometimes the traffic police are on duty till 2.30 at night. But as Singh says, they come without fail to their posts at eight the very next morning.