BERHAMPUR: Faced with shortage of manpower, the Traffic Police authorities here have decided to rope in 100 college students to manage movement of vehicles as volunteers in the city from Tuesday.
The Traffic department decided to engage students a fortnight back as part of Students’ Traffic Volunteers Scholarship Scheme. “Students have been selected from Khallikote Autonomous College, Sashi Bhushan Rath Women’s College, Mahamayee Women’s College, City College and Binayak Acharya College,” Nirad Polai, Traffic DSP said.
The volunteers would perform the duty in four shifts, from 9 am to 8 pm. ASP Trinath Patel addressed the trained students at Traffic Tower on Monday. “The volunteers will be given a stipend of `100 per day. At least 60 students will be asked to volunteer each day,” Polai said. “However, a student will not be put on duty for more than 15 days a month. Every six month, a new group of students will be recruited to continue the process,” the officer added.
Assigned to work under a constable, the volunteers were provided with identity cards and uniforms. The selected students underwent specialised practical training at Khallikote College playground for a week. During the orientation programme, they were taught the traffic rules in order to assist the cops.
Currently, the traffic wing functions with 54 Constables, 6 Havildars, 35 Home Guards and 25 personnel of Odisha Auxiliary Police Force. Three to four traffic cops are deployed at crowded chowks in the city. However, there are no traffic cops at several other places.“Besides regulating vehicle movement at intersections, we need to enforce traffic rules in the city for which the current strength of staff is not sufficient,” the DSP said.