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Just 8 cops regulating Rajouri, Poonch traffic
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Rajouri, January 4
Believe it or not, despite witnessing hundreds of passengers getting killed in fatal accidents last year, twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch enjoy services of merely eight traffic policemen.

According to sources in the traffic department, there are four traffic policemen each in Rajouri and Poonch districts to monitor vehicular traffic movement. These four traffic policemen comprise one district traffic inspector (DTI) and his three subordinates.

“Since the number of traffic policemen is very less, it becomes difficult for them to manage the huge volume of traffic especially the commercial vehicles,” the sources said. “The commercial vehicle owners taking advantage of the low presence of the traffic police indulge in overloading, which is a major reason for increase in number of road accidents,” they added.

It is due to the less manpower in the traffic police department, the transport department-- faced with increased number of deaths of the passengers in road accidents in Rajouri and Poonch---had delegated powers to station house officers of police stations, tehsildars and naib-tehsildar to book the violators of traffic rules.

But since the officers concerned are busy with their routine work, the problem of overloading continuously goes unchecked.

Expressing helplessness to check overloading, a senior traffic police officer told TNS that since the number of traffic police officials in these twin border districts is only eight, it becomes difficult to manage huge traffic flow in Rajouri and Poonch districts.

“It is not possible for eight cops to make their presence at every place in this far flung and geographically vast region,” he said.

He further informed that the traffic police department has already requested the government to provide more traffic cops so that overloading is checked at block level in the state, but the later has failed to increase the manpower.

Transport minister Hakeem Muhammad Yaseen admitted that number of traffic policemen in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch is quite less, but he said the shortage of traffic policemen exists across the state.

“There is shortage of manpower in the traffic police department. We are having only 10 per cent of the total requirement of traffic policemen in the state,” the transport minister said. “The home ministry holds the authority to increase the numbers and it should do the needful.”

Admitting that overloading has caused huge loss of human lives, the transport minister said more steps are in offing to check this menace.