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As a city, one of the many reasons why Delhi is defamed is because of its jam-packed roads, causing people to spend a quarter of their day on travelling. Now amidst the festive fervour, traffic issues gain momentum and they don’t just spell doom for commuters, but also make life a bit for difficult for the traffic police.
An average commuter usually faces issues of driving on potholed roads and during monsoons inefficient drainage system plays havoc with roads, adding to the misery. Hence begins a vicious cycle of blame-game that continues every years and the issue remains resolved. Amid this din, one forgets the role traffic police play, who more often than not are blamed for being corrupt. But when Metrolife spoke with a few traffic cops, the narrative spun a different tale.
Their job requires them to be on the road most of the time and their requirement is high during festivities and when there are VIP movements. The hectic lifestyle has become a part of their life and they are not complaining. But what they are collectively echoing is the “need to respect them”.
At 55, Civil Lines Inspector Rakesh Kumar has been on duty for handling traffic of areas including Kashmere Gate Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT), Hanuman Mandir
and old ISBT, for as many as 35 years.
“Leave alone festivals, rarely can we go to attend family weddings. However, these things don’t matter to me now. I am here to serve the people and the city traffic needs us,” he says.
Of the few grievances that he has, Kumar mentions that he rarely gets time to meet his children who are off to sleep when he returns back home from duty during the night, and are still sleeping when he leaves for duty in the morning.
“My family always complains that I don’t give them time. They say, harr waqt naukri karte ho tum. But over the years, I have realised that my personal life is not as important. I just demand respect from the government, that sometimes refer to us as thullas, and I want people to co-operate with us and abide by the law,” adds Kumar.
Sharing similar sentiments is 51-year-old Sanket Kaushik, Traffic Inspector, Kalyanpuri. Formerly appointed as Enforcement Directorate, Kaushik has been serving
as the traffic inspector for around six years now.
Like Kumar, he too feels serving people has become a part of his routine now. “People should be at convenience and ultimately it’s our responsibility to ensure the same.”
“As traffic police, we have moulded ourselves in a way that seeking holidays or even casual leaves don’t bother us anymore. After all we are not a civilian staff.”
However, they want some changes in their working patterns that include working in shifts and have a separate team for arrangement duty that includes taking care of VIP routes, protests and political rallies.
“We face major problems during arrangement duties. This we have to do over and above our daily duty. The government should definitely appoint a separate staff for serving such duties,” says Kaushik.
“Secondly,” he continues, “we don’t work on shift basis. That’s why our duty starts early in the morning and continues until late night. We constantly hear from people
who complain about lack of traffic police in a particular area, they should also understand that our demand is a lot and there is not enough traffic police to serve all parts of the city.”