PESHAWAR: Traffic police throw spanner in govt plan
By Sadia Qasim Shah
PESHAWAR, Nov 23: Reluctance on the part of police authorities to transfer their powers and necessary staff to the Directorate of Transport is hampering its proper functioning.
The provincial cabinet in August this year had approved major structural changes in the directorate of transport with a view to bringing all traffic-related functions of the police under the transport directorate. However, these changes could not be put into practice as the traffic police authorities so far have not deputed their staff to the directorate, sources said. The traffic police staff were supposed to be transferred to the directorate where they were to work under the transport authorities from Oct 1.
"The necessary staff has been transferred only in theory as the traffic police authorities are not taking interest in sending the allocated personnel," the sources added.
The sources said the provincial government established the transport directorate in 2002 but for almost a year it could not function properly due to staff shortage. Moreover, at that time many departments were involved in transport-related functions like registration of vehicles, issuance of route permits, licences. There was a lack of coordination among all those departments and policies were also not followed vigorously as there was no sense of responsibility among the high-ups of different departments.
Decisions of the provincial government also suffered as most of tem could not be implemented because of lack of effective monitoring and fragmented authority. There was no effective checking mechanism on the roads either which resulted in revenue shortfall because of duplicity of power. Initially, the transport directorate had the function of issuing permits, the sources said.
"About 40-60 per cent of vehicles with expired route permits had been plying on the roads since the winding up of the magistratacy system and due to lack of coordination among departments involved in transport functions," the sources said.
To overcome these problems, the provincial cabinet decided in August this year to club together all transport-related functions under the Directorate of Transport where traffic police were supposed to work under the supervision of traffic authorities.
The traffic police authorities, however, have expressed displeasure over the proposal to shift all transport-related functions to the transport directorate and are of the view that any amendment to empower or shift transport-related functions to a single entity is a mere waste of time, the sources said.
The transport directorate has not only proposed amendments to the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1965, but has also sought powers to issue fitness certificate.
"We want necessary powers for the issuance of licence as currently the job is performed by the traffic police authorities," sources in the transport directorate said.
The transport directorate intends to develop a computerized database and issue computerized licences. It also wants to determine tariff, number of route permits, passenger vehicles, updating of Highway Code, formulation of policies relating to fare structure and review traffic laws.
"There is a need to revise laws as it has not been done since long. The Motor Vehicle Ordinance of 1965 has become obsolete and that is the reason problems like registration of vehicles like Chengchi rickshaws have erupted because the vehicle does not meet the conditions of the law, the sources said.
A proposal was also made about checking of vehicle documents on roads and for this purpose patrol by inspectors who would work under the transport department had been suggested.
"We also have a plan to form a provincial highway police on the pattern of Motorway Police," officials of the transport department said. These proposals were approved by the cabinet earlier this year, but lack of cooperation from the traffic police was a hurdle in implementing the structural changes in the transport directorate, the sources added.
There should be a single authority answerable for improvement in the traffic system and discharge of its functions. This would help in implementing laws and abolish problems resulting from lack of coordination. Traffic police officials could not be contacted despite various attempts to get their comment on the matter.
