Better training of traffic police plays a crucial role in reducing road accidents: Altaf Shakoor

KARACHI, Feb 18 (SABAH): Despite the government taking a strong notice after every fatal road accident in Karachi, these mishaps are on the rise, because the traffic police lack capacity to regulate traffic laws, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor on Tuesday.

He said better training of traffic police plays a crucial role in reducing road accidents. He said the traffic cops on the roads of mega cities generally are ill-trained and they also lack motivation to regulate traffic. Majority of them are said to be corrupt like their officers and they focus on taking bribes when on duty.

Altaf Shakoor said that roadside encroachments are patronised by our police including the traffic police. He said every roadside vendor pays a bribe from Rs200 to Rs1000 daily, depending on the location of their business. There are hundreds of thousands of roadside vendors and pushcart vendors and the police take several millions of rupees from them as a bribe daily. He said this is the main reason why our roads and footpaths are encroached and why these encroachments are not removed despite the government taking frequent ‘notices’ of them and high-level meetings are held every other day.

He said transporters, bus owners, truckers and dumper owners are also amongst the ‘clients’ of our traffic police because the traffic police facilitate them in illegal parking of their vehicles on roads and footpaths. He said there are hundreds of illegal bus, truck and dumper stands or Addas in Karachi running under the patronage of our police. These illegal bus, truck and dumper stands are one of reasons for traffic jams and road accidents but no action is taken against them because they pay bribes to our police.

Altaf Shakoor said the government should focus on professional capacity building of traffic police. They should be equipped with modern gadgets like surveillance cameras. All sites in the megacity where roads and footpaths are occupied by vendors and shopkeepers should be monitored through these surveillance cameras to take stock of the situation in real time and take swift action.

He said the issuance of driving licenses to bikers should be free of cost or at very low fees to encourage the culture of driving licences. He said now almost 90 percent of our bikers have no valid driving licences.  He said the number of driving licence branches should be increased and every town in Karachi must have at least one driving licence branch.

He demanded to send young officers of the traffic police to Dubai or China for training in modern traffic policing methods. He said we must learn from the experience of the countries and cities having successful traffic control models. He said the senior traffic police officers should visit and monitor busy roads themselves to motivate the traffic cops on duty. He said honest and energetic traffic cops are a must to regulate traffic on the unruly roads of Karachi.

He said driving licenses of heavy vehicle operators should be checked as the majority of truck and dumper drivers are not properly trained. He said all this would be possible when the home department of the government of Sindh is run by educated, committed and honest people. He said without capable leadership the police and its traffic department could not be run on efficient grounds.