Appointment of ‘well educated wardens’ in traffic police could not bring any positive change in their attitude towards public.

The warden system was introduced in 2008 with a view to providing relief to the road users from the traffic mess.

Many of the problems emanate from their temperament and lack of interest in their job. Their attitude towards citizens is disappointing as they require a better training in public dealing.

Also read: Political rivalries taking a toll on traffic wardens

The feeling among the traffic wardens that they are highly qualified makes the problem worse as they consider their job to control traffic beneath their level.

“The traffic wardens lose temper when poor rickshaw or taxi drivers argue issuance of ticket over violation of traffic rules as they feel insulted,” one of the wardens revealed when his attention was drawn towards the attitude of his colleagues.

At times, they prefer to gossip on the roadside or in the middle of roads in group of three or four, hardly paying any attention to the traffic mess.  If a traffic violator becomes involved in an altercation with a police officer he (the officer) immediately calls his colleagues to deal with the situation jointly.

When fork lifters remove wrongly parked vehicle, it also leads to exchange of hot words between the violator and traffic warden, which creates a scene on the road.

“Where should I park my motorcycle, had there been any designated parking place for motorcycles?” a motorcyclists asked and added that if the government wanted to streamline traffic it should provide proper infrastructure and training to the traffic wardens, otherwise relation between traffic police and public would remain tense.

One can’t say that the bad behavior of traffic wardens is not in the knowledge of the city traffic officer or the senior traffic officer.

“Yes, they know very well and sometimes take notice of these issues whenever brought to their knowledge or they themselves observe such things. They summon them in their offices and impose fine on them,” a traffic warden said, adding that after the punishment they mend their ways for the time being.

Critics say had the city traffic officer or senior traffic officer regularly visited the traffic points in the city on regular basis, the situation would have been quite different.

Motorists and motorcyclists have demanded designated parking places be provided to them so that they could avoid the worst attitude of the traffic wardens.

However, the traffic wardens are friendly with public transporters as they allegedly violate all the traffic rules right under their nose.

Another reason for the rude attitude of traffic wardens and their poor skill to manage the traffic is the recruitment of “junior traffic wardens” who do only office job.

When the ‘well-educated’ traffic warden force was launched with the aim to bring a positive change in the police culture, there had been apprehensions that they will not properly deal with public as they lacked proper training.

The then government had not done even the homework before launching the new force.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2015

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