Pune Mirror: Pune: Monday, 13 July 2015.
RTI petition reveals no cases have been filed
against policemen for violating traffic rules, despite ample instances of them
being caught red-handed.
Traffic police are crying hoarse about the need to
follow traffic rules their strict vigil on violations since last year have
led to over two lakh cases being filed in the last six months. But, their
colleagues from the law and order department are merrily flouting traffic
rules, with not a single case being filed against them. A right to information
(RTI) application has revealed this shocking fact about cavalier cops.
"Traffic police are taking continuous action
by identifying various chowks, but are reluctant to act against the police. We
have observed many traffic violations by policemen, like jumping signals, not
wearing a helmet, parking at the zebra crossing and many more. Rules are the
same for all people and cops are no exception. Rather, they are expected to set
an example to common people by following rules rigorously," said Ajhar
Ahmed Khan, who had filed the RTI application. He added that even after various
complaints (with photographic proof) have been posted on the official Facebook
page of the traffic police, no action has been taken.
Along with mandatory helmets for all two-wheeler
riders, traffic police have also adopted a 'no tolerance' policy for jumping
signals, parking at no-parking zones, zebra crossings, triple riders, speaking
on the mobile while driving and so on. In the last six months (from January 1
to June 12), a total of 2,18,936 cases have been filed and fine worth Rs 2.22
crore collected in Pune for traffic violations. Under the RTI, it was revealed
that no case had been filed against any policeman. The traffic police didn't
have any record of action against police till 2011. From 2012, they began
maintaining a database and, in the last three years, a nominal 599 cases of
traffic violation have been filed against the police.
"The database shows that there have been no
traffic violations by police in the last six months. We all know that is not
possible. There are many violations, especially about not wearing helmets.
Traffic rules should applicable to everyone, whether it is the police, civic
body employees, PMPML and others," said Harshad Abhyankar of Save Pune Traffic
Movement.
However, the traffic policemen maintain that they
are hawk-eyed for cops, too. "We regularly take action against police as
well. We maintain that data separately. In the last six months, we have filed
more than 500 traffic violation cases against the police," said Rajkumar
Shere, Traffic PI (planning). Sarang Awad, DCP (traffic) even took offence as
such an 'insinuation' saying, "We have been making efforts to create
traffic discipline. However, many people are deliberately tarnishing our image.
We receive many absurd RTI applications every day. We have taken action against
police, too. Police are also included in the total number of cases. It is not
possible to maintain separate data like the number of cases against police,
teachers or people from a specific area."
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