Ghaziabad traffic police to use tech to randomise duty allotments

Officials said that manual duty assignments often resulted in personnel requesting preferred locations, raising concerns about partiality

The Ghaziabad traffic police have introduced new technology to randomise the monthly duties of its traffic personnel in order to bring transparency towards work assignments. This move aims to prevent repeated postings at the same location, a practice that has previously led to complaints and alleged favouritism, said traffic police officials.

In addition to the 170 fixed traffic locations, personnel are also assigned duties on 12 traffic mobile vehicles and eight towing vans. (HT Archive)

The district has been divided into six traffic zones, overseen by an additional deputy commissioner of police and assistant commissioner of police, the officials said.

Each zone is headed by a traffic inspector, with further support from 81 traffic sub-inspectors, 240 head constables, and 312 traffic constables. The duty assignments of inspectors are rotated within their zones, while the duties of sub-inspectors, head constables, and constables are now determined using a new software system, they added.

“We have now started the use of software which randomises monthly duties of our sub-inspectors, head constables, and constables at 170 locations across the district. Earlier, the monthly duties were chalked out manually. Starting this month, we have done away with the manual duty chart,” said Piyush Singh, additional DCP (traffic). “Our duty randomisation software uses an algorithm for the allotment of duties. For instance, the probability of a traffic sub-inspector getting monthly duty at the same spot is now 1 in 81,” Singh added.

In addition to the 170 fixed traffic locations, personnel are also assigned duties on 12 traffic mobile vehicles and eight towing vans. Officials aware of the development said that manual duty assignments often resulted in personnel requesting preferred locations, causing conflicts among staff and raising concerns about partiality.

“Now, the duty chart is prepared by the randomisation software and it is circulated to the personnel at the start of the month. With the new arrangement, we expect transparent working and deployment, and this will also ease the time spent on preparing duty charts manually,” said Singh. The software is also equipped with security layers and authorization levels for any necessary adjustments, he added.

According to officials, the traffic police are deployed daily from 7am to 10pm, managing traffic on busy district roads, state highways, national highways, and strategic points along the Eastern Peripheral Expressway and Delhi Meerut Expressway within Ghaziabad.