Two students, who were introduced to the intricacies of traffic management, in the city, eventually decided to do their mite, in helping the police. On Sunday, the duo was inducted as traffic wardens, along with 22 others, in the presence of Police Commissioner M A Saleem.
Jeswanthdhar, aged 22 years, and Mohammed Yunus, 20, students of final year Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) at NIE First Grade College, Visvesvaraya Industrial Suburb, are now traffic wardens. In 23 years, ever since the service was launched in the year 1991, it is the first time students have joined the service. It is voluntary service, with no pay.
Jeswanthdhar was the president of the Rotaract Club in the college in 2013, when he organised a programme ‘Traffic Aid and Awareness’ in association with the Police department. It was then that he was introduced to the strenuous efforts of the sentinel in manning the burgeoning traffic. Moreover, he was motivated by his father Chandudhar, Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise and Customs, Bangalore.
Jeswanthdhar shared his thoughts with his friend Yunus, who readily obliged to join the service along with him. Yunus’ father Mohammed Yusuf is a cashier at Bank of India, Mahadevapura branch, in Srirangapatna taluk. He too encouraged his son.
To their luck, Rotary Club of Mysuru, the parent body of the Rotaract Club, came to their aid by sponsoring Rs 1,500 (50 per cent of total Rs 3,000 to be borne by the wardens towards their uniform set), while the two managed to arrange the remaining amount from their pocket money.
Job schedule
Said Jeshwanthdhar: “According to the job schedule, traffic wardens have to manage traffic at select junctions alloted by the respective police stations, for four hours in a week. Sometimes, the time flies past two hours and we like to continue till the day’s end”.
Already in the mid of exams, the duo are confident of charting time for the job, they have embraced with love.
Along with them, two budding engineers — Sachin M S and Aniruth L Subramanyam — were also inducted as traffic wardens. For Sachin, it is like following in the footsteps of his father C M Subramanian, the chief traffic warden.