The school-reopening, coupled with the south-west monsoon, has added to the woes of the City Traffic Police as everything increases - from the volume of vehicles to the number of busy traffic spots - during this period, but the strength of the Traffic Police personnel.
Fixed around 15 years ago, the staff strength of the City Traffic Police stays at the same number, 340, even now. This includes police personnel of all ranks and for all duties - recovery, work enforcement and the like. The result is overload of work for the existing staff as some of them have to work for 12 hours or more a day and some others round-the-clock.
“Those on office duty have to work from 8 am to 8 pm. The outdoor duty has two shifts - one from 8 am to 2 pm and the other from 2 pm to 8 pm. But in some prime areas it extends up to 9 pm or 9.30 pm. Those on the work enforcement task have to be on their toes round-the-clock,” said Assistant Commissioner Traffic (South) P Mohanan.
As the monsoon gains strength, the non-functioning of traffic signals in the city has become a regular affair as the solar panels which supply power to them get damaged in the rains. So, at the traffic spots, where signals show only yellow light all the time, more police personnel have to deployed, adding to the workload of the force. Also, as the schools have reopened, additional personnel are needed to be assigned for duty in front of schools. Traffic officials say that the additional demand is met by rearranging the duty time of the staff on office work.
The home guards, ex-servicemen who had been deployed for traffic duty on daily wage basis for the past four years, were recalled in the beginning of the year. Though they were redeployed, their strength was reduced by half; from 80 to 40.
Meanwhile, the Traffic Police wing’s proposal to increase the staff strength still remains unheard.
“Similar is the situation in other cities too. But since it is the capital, the floating population here is much higher than the other cities, making things more difficult to manage,” said Mohanan.
