Acute shortage of traffic cops

Traffic Police Department is facing the manpower shortage as 131 post of constables and four posts of head constables are lying vacant causing serious problem in traffic management.

Traffic Police Department is facing the manpower shortage as 131 post of constables and four posts of head constables are lying vacant causing serious problem in traffic management.

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The problem is further compounded by the fact that those traffic cops who are on duty are not working as per the requirement. As a result great inconvenience is caused to the public. Often a crossing is found without a traffic cop, leaving no one to control the movement of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Besides, in most of the places of the city including vital spots there is no traffic cop to clear the jam. This causes perennial problems. At times people have to spend long time, just waiting in the vehicle for the jam to clear off. Not only this, even those cops who are on duty are more often found gossiping and standing in a quite relaxed manner instead of regulating the traffic at the crossing.

"Often I have to wait in my vehicle for the jam to clear off. And due to this there are times when I get late to my office", says Pratik Singh, a regular road user.

When contacted, Circle Officer (CO) Traffic, Arvind Mishra agreed to the fact that there is manpower problem in the department since a long time. Mishra said, "Manpower required to regulate traffic of the city is not at par. But we are taking measures to optimally utilise the existing force of the department".