MARGAO
Making matters worse for the traffic cops is the manpower shortage, as they grappled with the task of manning several traffic points in the city for want of adequate number of traffic personnel with the city traffic cell.
Old issues such as staggered timings for the city schools and the government’s plan to relocate the city schools to the outskirts at Davorlim in a bid to decongest the city again come to haunt the parents, students and the authorities as well. Though the Directorate of Education has on more than one occasion unveiled plans to shift the city schools to the government-acquired land at Davorlim, it’s still unclear whether the proposed shifting of the schools to the outskirts will materialize even in the next academic year.
Similarly, the traffic officials appeared to have abandoned plans to introduce staggered timing for the city schools to ensure that all the students do not close for the day at the same time. Traffic officials said the proposal is no more pursued by the department with the suggestion finding no favour with the parents and the schools showing no interest in implement staggered timing.
Traffic Cell in-charge, PI Mohan Gawde pointed out that traffic officials have not pursued the proposal for staggered timings for the simple reason that it has not found favour with the parents, who
have their wards in different schools.
That’s not all. Monday saw the traffic cell struggling with manpower to man different points with vehicles from various parts of Salcete bringing in students in the city.
The ambitious proposal to create space at the old bus stand to facilitate vehicles to drop the students has also not seen light of the day till date.
Traffic jams were order of the day in the city and near the Comba railway crossing, though PI Gawde maintained that he personally made his presence felt at the railway crossing to streamline the traffic flow. “It has been decided to depute a police personnel at the railway crossing during the peak hours, both in the morning and noon”, he said, while admitting that the situation turns chaotic at the railway crossing during monsoons when the subway is inundated with flood water.
