Mysore police create traffic awareness

Miscellany

The Mysore police is no exception and have opened an exclusive stall to create traffic awareness.

The stall near the main entrance greets you with models of traffic police in uniform. Step inside, you can find an array of exhibits, from photographs depicting several traffic offences to statistics related to fatal and non-fatal mishaps and types of vehicles claiming lives, gadgets used by men on duty to painting and sketching by students to create awareness among others. Visitors to the stall will identify themselves with the offences depicted in the exhibition, either as motorists or as pedestrians.

It was six years ago that the then police commissioner Praveen Sood (now Joint Commissioner of Police-Traffic, Bangalore) thought of using the expo as the ideal platform to create awareness.

According to available statistics, fatal mishaps were recorded in the range of 120 to 150 per year during that period, forcing the police to give more impetus to create traffic awareness. The first traffic police stall was opened at the exhibition in 2006. Ever since, it has become a permanent feature during the Dasara expo every year. The expo remains open for nearly three months starting from ‘Naada Habba’ Dasara.

Police Commissioner Sunil Agarwal says footfalls at the stall have been recorded on an average of one lakh every year. Most importantly, the stall turns into a classroom every Sunday. It is used to counsel those involved in drunken driving cases, a first-of-its-kind attempt. In Mysore, those held for drunken driving have to mandatorily attend the counselling session.

The credit again goes to Praveen Sood, who later went on to win an award for his contribution to resolving traffic issues. The counselling in the initial period was conducted in the conference hall in the premises of the office of the police commissioner. It was later shifted to the police training centre atop the V VPuram Traffic Police Station, the reason being a gradual rise in the number of offenders too.

Points out Sunil Agarwal, “Penalising the offenders alone is not the criterion. Education also assumes significance and hence the counselling.”

Short films pertaining to mishaps and the ill-effects of drinking and driving will be screened for 45 minutes as part of the exhibition. The films portray the pain of those families who have lost their near and dear ones because of traffic offences. The dependents of the victims narrate the ordeal they had to face, as part of the short films.