With only 5,000 odd traffic policemen to regulate around 10 million registered vehicles in Delhi, and many more incoming from nearby States, there appears to be a consensus on the need to have an intelligent traffic management system in the city. However, not much has been done in that direction despite the issue surfacing every now and then.
last year in May, when a video of a traffic constable attacking a woman driver with a brick went viral and it later turned out that the woman had first misbehaved with the constable, there was a lot of debate on the need to automate the challaning system and arming the traffic policemen with body-worn cameras.
Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Muktesh Chander had said the ideal way to prevent such incidents from happening again is to make the challaning process completely technology-driven and without any human contact.
“Doing that, there will be no conflict as challans will be issued and sent to those who violate traffic rules by an automated system with no human intervention. Cameras can be installed and a system put in place so that pictures of the offenders are taken, and a challan sent to them at their addresses. With no human contact, there would be no conflict or claims that the offender is unfairly targeted,” Chander had said adding that wherever there is human contact, police personnel will be equipped with body-worn cameras so that the entire conversation is recorded and stored which can later be produced as independent evidence in case of any conflict.
However, nothing has changed on the ground so far.
Meanwhile, Chander clarified that procurement of body-worn cameras is at the final stage and traffic officials will soon be equipped with them so that every interaction with the drivers is recorded and can later be used as evidence if needed.
On the other hand, apart from some one-off independent pilot projects, no concrete measures have been taken to install an integrated intelligent traffic management system in the city. With traffic volumes increasing by the day and limited personnel available to man the traffic signals round the clock, it is imperative that not only the traffic signals are made intelligent to adapt to changing traffic conditions, but also that traffic violations like red-light jumping or over-speeding do not go unnoticed even in the absence of the traffic officials at the intersection.
According to traffic police officials, only around five per cent of the total volume of traffic can be streamlined by manual methods in absence of an intelligent traffic management system.
One of the major problems is non-compliance of traffic rules by the drivers. “A fine of Rs 100 is not enough to deter the traffic violators. People don’t want to follow the rules. It is only the probability of a hefty fine that can make them fall in line. But Rs 100 are not enough to do that. let it be made Rs 2,000 like it was done during Commonweatlh Games or even during odd-even scheme, then people will start following the rules,” said a traffic official.
Apart from that, there is also a trust deficit between the citizens and the traffic policemen. Often the traffic violators start misbehaving with the traffic officials instead of paying the fine. Rampal Singh, Traffic Inspector posted at Aligaon in Sarita Vihar, said, “Whenever we stop anyone for an offence, first they request us to let them go. But when they realise that we are not letting them off without the fine, they start behaving rudely and do all sorts of things. They would accuse us of unfairly targeting them, call us corrupt who just want the money, or even threaten us of getting us suspended.”
Singh further added that while a common man may have faced a cop misbehaving with them once in their lives, or maybe never, but a cop has people misbehave with them every single day. “They threaten us by dropping big names claiming that they know those people and can have us dismissed in no time. Often they call someone and give us the phone to talk to the person. All this while we are just doing our job,” he added.
Sub-inspector Virender Pratap said he has lost count of how many times he has heard “You don’t know who I am, I will get you dismissed”.
“Since we don’t have the power to arrest them, all we can do is call a nearby PCR van,” he said. However, all is not that bad for the Delhi Traffic Police. 2015 was the year when it efficiently used helicopters to manage the traffic.
Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi also said choppers will be used for round-the-year aerial surveillance in the city mostly to monitor and regulate traffic during peak hours by next year. Also, around 1,000 traffic policemen will be given pistols within the next few months to deter traffic violations and curb incidents of road rage.