Sixtytwo-year-old Ram Pujan Singh, a resident of Kanti Tand, had to face a traffic constable’s slur for coming in front of a police vehicle while the vehicle was being allowed to enter the traffic from wrong side. Singh recollects the event with pain but is helpless as the high and mighty continues to bully ordinary and disempowered.
“This is what happens with a law abiding citizen. You wait for the traffic to open and suddenly a government vehicle comes in between the road throwing the traffic in mess,” said Singh.
Traffic snarls due to VIP movement or cutting short the minimum duration at a traffic signal to provide thoroughfare to amber beacons that ostensibly claims
preferential treatment as a matter of right in contrast to the realization of the position for the people are the sordid reality one comes fact-to-face while commuting on the streets of the capital.
This is despite the fact that the Supreme Court has time and again questioned the stoppage of traffic and other security paraphernalia put in place for facilitating the movement of a high functionary, while inconveniencing the public.
The apex court has also expressed displeasure over indiscriminate use of red beacon lights and its misuse by people in the name of security.
People usually find themselves stranded under an unrelenting Sun these days to wait for the cavalcade of VVIPs to cross before they can cross a signal or a square to reach their destination. The excruciating ordeal at various points faced by disempowered lot on the streets is strangely devoid of any valid justification.
“We get intimation over wireless to keep the road clear in case of a VIP movement. So we work according to the instruction we get,” said a constable posted at Ratu Road signal.
The Governor, Chief Minister and Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court are among the constitutional figures who are supposed to be provided thoroughfare at all squares and signals. But the police are found to stop the traffic movement for all those so called VIPS who flash beacon lights.
Interestingly the overly congested streets, especially the Harmu Bypass, of Ranchi offer the best view of inequity borne out of association with high-office in government institutions. The road that leads to important government buildings where horn honking vehicles of babus of State bureaucracy and ministers finally stop to work for the same common man who is still yearning for equality as enshrined in the Constitution. Although the Traffic police are not bound by any instruction lower rung officials do work with premeditated mindset that allow clearing the road the moment a beacon flashes.
“Around one-and-half year back I had filed an RTI at the Jharkhand Police Headquarter to obtain information about any provisions in the book that allows for providing thoroughfare to a red or yellow beacon mounted vehicle. The reply that I got through the office of SP Traffic said the department knows no such rule,” said RTI activist, Pratul Shahdeo.
The situation after Shahdeo was replied to the RTI has not changed even today as commoners still have to give way to the high and mighty. Perceived threat to a Minister or a government official also drives the behavior of a traffic constable.
“We do not decide who will get what type of treatment. And if an official stuck in traffic jam is given preferential treatment then it must be because of the threat to that person in traffic,” said SP Traffic, Rajiv Ranjan Singh, admitting there is no notification by the State Government over stoppage of traffic for the VIP movement.