JHANG: The traffic police have turned the municipal limits of the Jhang city into a mess.

The 500,000-strong city connects Faisalabad and other central Punjab parts with Multan, Muzaffargarh, Layyah and Bhakkar district. Ayub Chowk, Sessions Chowk and Islamia High School Chowk are the busiest intersections of the town where heavy public transport and local vehicles pass through round the clock. The road is hard to get across because of no traffic management.

Residents said that to cope with the situation, the city needed a trained and efficient presence of traffic police.

They said whenever they brought the situation to the notice of senior officials of the city, they would not address their concerns. They said not even a single point of the city was being manned by the traffic police. A few police officials were seen at Nawaz Chowk due to its proximity to the DPO House.

They alleged officials would man different corners of the roads only to ticket motorcyclists and rickshaw drivers. In the reckless traffic regime, the district police officer directed his subordinates to deal strictly with the motorcyclists not wearing a helmet. The direction was issued two months ago. Residents said the orders of the DPO had been ignored by both motorcyclists and traffic police officials.

With the advent of the winter season, few motorcyclists start wearing helmet, but only to protect the head from the cold weather, they said.

A spokesperson for the DPO office said when the helmet related rules were not being implemented in other districts of the province, why Jhang was being singled out?

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2017