Traffic lights in the city have become non-functional due to lack of proper upkeep and careless attitude of the authorities concerned.
The lights were installed at Char-Batti Chowk and DC Chowk, but at both the places, they have not been working properly for the last many months. At Char-Batti Chowk, all the lights are seen on simultaneously round-the-clock and this has been the situation for many months and at DC Chowk no light is seen blinking.
"What was the fun of spending huge money on these traffic lights if these were to be kept non-operational? I doubt, these lights remained operational for more than a year after installation. For the last many years, these have been seen in the way they are at present," rued Navneet Singh, a local resident.
The lights were installed by the police in the city nearly six years ago. HT enquiries revealed that no effort was made by the authorities concerned to motivate the people to follow traffic lights. People usually keep on jumping lights even if they are working sometimes due to low volume of traffic.
Even traffic police cops are never seen at the both places except on the days when any dignitary visits the city.
"Traffic is totally uncontrolled in the city. It seems traffic cops are there only to penalise and harass the people by putting up checkpoints at one place or the other. They rarely do anything to control the traffic flow. From 11am to 2pm daily, traffic remains choked at most of the places in the city," said Sanjana Arora, another resident of the city.
{{/usCountry}}"Traffic is totally uncontrolled in the city. It seems traffic cops are there only to penalise and harass the people by putting up checkpoints at one place or the other. They rarely do anything to control the traffic flow. From 11am to 2pm daily, traffic remains choked at most of the places in the city," said Sanjana Arora, another resident of the city.
{{/usCountry}}People Speak
The traffic lights put the first-time visitor to the city in a fix as he stops for some time seeing the red signal. But, after some time, he sees that lights are on simultaneously on all the directions, so he moves on. This leaves a very bad impression of the city.
Sunny Sharma, a shopkeeper
What is the fun of supplying electricity to the signal lights at Char-Batti Chowk if they are not working properly? Surprisingly, all the three lights on each pole keep on blinking uninterruptedly on all the three directions. The authorities should at least save electricity by not supplying it.
Manjinder Singh, a shopkeeper
Authority Speak
We have prepared an estimate for the repair of these traffic lights at both the places and the file is being submitted for approval to the office of the SSP. Very soon, the lights would be made operational and the people would be made to follow them.
Narinder Kumar, traffic in-charge