Thursday, October 22, 2009

exasperation at traffic!

This is to bring into the notice of the authority regarding the crassness of our traffic system and the utmost degradation of morality of some of the traffic cops of the department in kolkata. Few days back while driving on the EM Bypass I was caught on the ground of exceeding my speed limit and was charged a fine of Rs.300. though I was quite confident that my speedometer never escalated 60 kmph. ,it was a wild goose chase to convince them. They claimed that their SPEC aided speed camera installed at the last crossing, has caught my vehicle committing the offence.
Several cars and bikes were queued at the side of the road. Just by then, a motor bike sped away under the nose of the sergeants with three people on it,two on the rear seat without any helmet. When I countered him about their inaction in this case,to my dismay, he answered with perfect nonchalance that sometimes they fail to grab the collar of the actual lawbreakers, if the later are really fast (as the one happened then).he even cleared that he will never go in pursuit of those speeding vehicles as that would either cost his life or mean a loss in the chase for him. ”amader ki janer maya nei”(Don’t we care for our lives) was the unabashed and audacious reply! I cried in vein, “but it was actually them who were supposed to be detained, not us” this was what they are assigned for. I was aghast by seeing that one after the other highly speeding cars were let gone…though anyone,without the help of any sophisticated instrument, could easily and accurately have pointed out the real fast ones! The point man Jay prakash saha said that they need not catch all the speedy ones as it is not America! I never knew, a developing country needs to be a developed one to eradicate the disparities in their law enforcing procedures! Being infuriated at the remark & despaired I kept mum. To top it all, the prosecutor of public nuisance and crime, Mr.Saha justified their apathy and lopsidedness by stating that its their ‘target’ that needs to be fulfilled any how at the end of the day and it’s the quantity that matters to them not the amelioration of the quality of the city.

excerpt of the above post can be seen at http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091116/jsp/opinion/story_11675496.jsp

2 comments:

tini said...

its a very abhorent act of the police..actually they caught your vehicle as you were slow,and so was in their reach...they couldnt chase the actual virus causing accidents(the reckless drivers who are always in a hurry or tasting adventure)...so,now onwards,people will drive in a more accelerated speed as the police has fear of their lives in cathching the speedy vehicles(as said-amader ki janer maya nei)but they dont have fear of chances of lossing their jobs by making such offences...as the whole world is perhaps linked by a chain of dirty corruption.

Unknown said...

This is so very true.. Have heard of so many cases like this one.. Our country speaks of being one of the fastest growing economies in the world.. Yet, no constructive changes happen at the grass root level.. Moreover, these cops don't get paid enough.. And as you mentioned, they are not given any quality-based incentives at work.. The entire system sucks!