KOCHI: Fifty days after the Kerala High Court passed the order prohibiting overtaking by private buses in city limits for a period of two months, the measures taken by the City Traffic Police to implement it seem to be effective.
At two major traffic police stations in the city, the cops have registered around 200 cases of traffic offence under Section-188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) and Section-279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) of the CrPc.
Interestingly, the number of violations have been brought down considerably since last month. Of the 200 cases, 62 were registered until September 20. In August, a whopping 143 cases were registered.
The statistics of the Traffic West police station, which covers the majority areas of the city, shows that overtaking offence were reduced considerably owing to the strict enforcement of the order by the police, within the two-and-half months time frame.
As many as 91 cases of reckless overtaking were registered in August. In September, 44 such cases were registered until last Saturday. The statistics are based on the cases registered at the station, under Sections 188 and 279 of the CrPc.
“The figures themselves reflect the efficiency of our team in keeping a tab on offenders. We will continue our efforts to curb traffic offences,” said Traffic West Circle Inspector K F Francis Shelby.
“We have deployed an enforcement squad in areas where the possibility of overtaking is comparatively high. We could also curb overtaking to a great extent in areas like Thevara, Ravipuram, Foreshore Road, BTH, Menaka and High Court Junction,” he added.
Meanwhile, at the Traffic East police station, 52 cases were registered last month, and 18 cases so far this month.
“In addition to overtaking, we have also booked bus operators for other offences like over-speeding and drunken driving. We have booked around 34 persons for offences such as drunken driving and over-speeding at Vyttila junction,” said Traffic East Assistant Commissioner of Police P P Shams.