PESHAWAR, Feb 13: The NWFP government’s orders to install fare meters in rickshaws plying on city roads can not be carried out as the traffic police are unable to provide required numbers of meters by March 31.

This was stated by senior traffic police officials talking to Dawn here on Wednesday.

NWFP Governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah had ordered traffic police to streamline traffic affairs, and install fare meters in every rickshaw of the city by March 31.

“It is a strange decision, as neither the poor rickshaw drivers can afford to purchase fare meters nor the traffic police can provide about 14,000 meters for vehicles plying on the roads,”  they said.

They opined that the government needed a plan to improve the city traffic as only orders could not serve the purpose. “We have loopholes in traffic affairs, and only installation of fare meters in rickshaw is not enough to improve the traffic system,” they said.

They said: “The meters are not being made locally, and the traffic police must import them through the ministry of commerce.”

An auto parts dealer in Diljan Plaza said a low cost fare meter would not be less than Rs6,000, and Malaysian-made were more popular in the market.

The police officials also suggested the government to establish a separate ministry to run traffic, transportation and communication affairs independently. “Traffic control is not part of the police, because it is a specialised field,” they opined.

But unfortunately the police department sent ordinary policemen to this specialised field after only one-month training which was insufficient, they maintained.

They alleged that in many cases people join traffic police to “mint money” and “we are forced to induct them in traffic police on the recommendation of our bosses.”

Criticising the yearly allocations for the traffic police department, they said that this year the department had submitted about Rs300 million to national exchequer in shape of contracts of differed bus stands, route permits and fines, but on the other hand we received only Rs25 million.

Demanding increase in traffic police strength and vehicles, they said there remained about 400 officials in the department, and only 307 were traffic police constables.  

They all perform their duties in rotation and without day off, which was injustice, they said. On certain occasions “we depute 40 constables on the roads where normally four constables perform their duties”. This practice added to the burden on the traffic police.