Traffic cops’ FB page filled with complaints

Fifteen days after the launch of the Mumbai traffic police’s official page on the social networking site, Facebook, an overwhelming number of Netizens have expressed their unhappiness over the poor response to their comments, posts and complaints. Megha Sood reports.

Fifteen days after the launch of the Mumbai traffic police’s official page on the social networking site, Facebook, an overwhelming number of Netizens have expressed their unhappiness over the poor response to their comments, posts and complaints.

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The traffic cops, however, claim they have taken steps to address most of the complaints.

The Facebook page is flooded with photographs of policemen and citizens flouting traffic rules. Till Sunday, 410 photos of law offenders had been posted on the webpage.

The police said they keep regular track of the complaints on Facebook and have been forwarding the complaints to the Regional Transport Office (RTO). “We cannot take action against each complaint as often we don’t have the complainant’s identity. In such cases, if we book the offender and there is no witness, the offender can be let off,” said police inspector M. Chavan.

“We have noted down the genuine complaints and have forwarded them to the RTO for the addresses of the drivers to penalise them,” said Chavan. “Now it depends on the RTO as to how fast can we get these addresses.” Many visitors on the site have posts appealing to the traffic police to reply to their queries and keep them updated on the steps taken on their complaints.

Officers said they are updating the webpage by posting figures of the crackdown on offenders and also putting up warnings so that motorists could take steps to avoid being fined. “We have been replying to the messages posted and also keeping an eye on the complaints. The webpage has been launched is to hear out the citizens,” said Nandkumar Chougule, deputy commissioner of traffic police.