RAWALPINDI: The chief traffic officer (CTO) of Rawalpindi has said uninterrupted flow of traffic and creating awareness among road users was top priority of the police.

He said resentment is not tolerated from either the traffic wardens or road users and anyone found responsible will face the consequences.

CTO Taimoor Khan stated this while presenting a report about the police working in 2023 at a press conference.

“Our nation lacks discipline, and we cannot accomplish our goals if we do not apply it to ourselves,” the CTO said.

During the year 2023, he added, 308 road traffic accidents were reported to the police in which 166 people lost their lives and 322 sustained multiple injuries.

Says traffic system cannot be corrected without discipline by road users

A total of 639,175 challans were issued on various traffic violations and fines around Rs27,000,000 were collected.

About 349 officials of the police were among those who were issued tickets for traffic rules violations.

He said 5698 cases were registered for various violations of traffic rules compared to only 23 registered in 2022.

He said 639,175 challans were issued for violations of traffic rules, amounting to 269,423,000. He said 55,581 challans were issued for violation of one way, 66,109 challans for without licence, 23,378 challans for smoking vehicles, 7,370 challans for underage driving and 7,370 challans for driving a motorcycle without a helmet.

The CTO said the traffic system cannot be corrected until every individual applied the traffic discipline to themselves.

He said 140 awareness lectures were organised along with distribution of 18000 pamphlets throughout the year for awareness of the laws. Moreover, 1 24,124 new driving licences were issued during the year.

“Our education wing is fully active in this regard, he said, adding installation of traffic signboards was the responsibility of the cantonment boards in the cantonment areas and the municipal corporation in the city areas.

In response to a question, he said there was zero tolerance on mistreatment and misbehaviour with citizens by traffic police personnel.

On the other hand, the City Traffic Police are considering starting training programme (as a penalty) for those found driving without a licence instead of registration of FIRs against them. After the training, they will be issued driving licences if they fulfilled the criteria.

Published in Dawn, january 1st, 2024