BENGALURU: At 59, Vinod Hayagriv, Managing Director of the popular jewellery store chain C Krishniah Chetty & Sons, is brimming with energy. And he now plans to channelise some of it towards managing the city’s chaotic traffic by signing up for the traffic warden programme. He has also got 19 of his employees to join in.
Hayagriv and his team were extremely happy as all of them have been selected as traffic wardens. Speaking to TNSE, Hayagriv revealed that he was part of the traffic warden group 25 years ago and felt that more and more individuals should take up the responsibility. But then, he said that back then, the traffic warden programme lasted for only eight months and was not continued.
“That short time was also a great experience for me in regulating traffic and helping the BTP. Now, when Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao announced the requirement of traffic wardens, I thought I should definitely apply and support the Bangalore Traffic Police. We see bottlenecks every day and we only criticize the city authorities. Now we have an opportunity to help in easing it,” added Hayagriv.
With a large number of employees working for the Krishniah Chetty group, he also thought of roping in some of them. “I had a meeting with all the employees and spoke to them about the traffic issues, the role of traffic wardens and how it can help our city by just spending four hours a week. To my surprise, 19 employees from different departments were eager to be part of it. We went to Pulakeshinagar Police Station about 10 days ago and submitted our applications,” said Hayagriv.
All the 20 went for the interviews two days ago and were selected as traffic wardens. They are now waiting for the training sessions to begin.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) representative of the group, Hareesh K A Reddy, who has also signed up, said, “We all know the traffic scenario in the city and how hard our traffic police try to manage traffic. They are out there in the rain and even during high temperatures. They need support and we can be their support. The more join the initiative, together we can reduce traffic problems.”
A senior traffic police officer, who part of the interview process, said, “Yes, the group had applied and it is great to see such people coming forward to become traffic wardens. We are looking forward for their service.”