The news that a written complaint from a citizen brought Margao traffic personnel on the ground last Wednesday to rein in rent-a-car operators whose vehicles were found parked in open spaces in the commercial capital hardly serves to bring in any cheers for a city weighed down by its parking woes.
More so since the department’s professed concern for roping in traffic anomalies in the city and its suburbs has lacked the enthusiasm that would otherwise have had Margao leading by example.
Coming out in full force on days ear-marked for special drives by the department, police personnel can be seen busy all day through at various vantage points in the city penalizing offenders violating traffic regulations.
However, the charades played out in the name of observing traffic safety and awareness week organized by the government from time to time have miserably failed to serve any purpose either.
One is often at a loss to fathom the wastefulness of such essays where only the perfunctory nature of such drills is evident without anything concrete coming of them that could instil a sense of traffic discipline in the public.
The effectiveness of the traffic police personnel and home guards stationed at different corners of the city and its neighbourhoods to man vehicular movement has always been a debatable matter.
Besides, their style of functioning has given the impression that their duties are restricted to regulating traffic and such issues like parking as a perennial problem of the commuting public do not seem to come under their purview.
It is with such false notions that the traffic cops in the city have been moving around discharging their duties.
It is nonetheless a surprise that parking woes of the public have never bothered the traffic enforcers. Or are they turning a blind eye to the entire ‘fiasco’ for fear of getting into controversies!
Two-wheelers and other vehicles are carted or towed away by the authorities when found parked in ‘No Parking’ zones. But areas clearly demarcated as designated parking places for cars being occupied by two-wheelers - and the other way around - never seem to elicit any disciplinary action from the transport authorities.
Widened-roads turning into parking bays for heavy vehicles are a common enough site. If only the traffic authorities were to take a stern stand against such irregularities, it would go a long way in clearing the roads of unnecessary ‘obstructions’ making commuting a more pleasurable experience.
Furthermore, the presence of ‘Satellite markets’ not only at the outskirts but even within the city limits has been widely discussed and brought to the notice of the authorities on several occasions. But these ‘thriving’ markets are an indication of the ‘inscrutable indolence’ exhibited by the concerned officials on this matter.
Some of these irregularities seem to happen right under the noses of the traffic enforcers but preoccupied that they are with the ‘appendages’ (read as cell-phones) permanently glued to their ears, they seem to be disinterested in exercising their authority at such places.
At the same time, it is observed that the alacrity shown by the municipal staff to discourage hawkers from carrying out their ‘business’ from pavements and other public places in the city is in stark contrast to the apathetic ways of the transport authorities.
It needs to be drilled into the minds of people that they need to act responsibly when driving and who better than the law enforcers who can ensure that they behave sensibly!
Parking right in front of shops where they alight to make purchases unmindful of the teeming traffic around them, it is time some sense is put into such errant drivers.
Likewise, with parents coming to drop their children to schools, crowds outside educational institutions in the city have come to be accepted as a routine matter.
However, it is the unruly scenes outside where entire stretches of the roads are occupied by cars and two-wheelers parked haphazardly obstructing the free-flow of traffic when parents come to collect their children after the school that needs to be looked into. The traffic is virtually paralysed during this time.
Impressing upon the school management to request parents and guardians to keep the thoroughfares free of any congestion by avoiding any vehicular crowding in the vicinity, the traffic authorities could ensure a smooth flow of traffic.
But one can't help but be sceptical about the absence of dedicated traffic personnel to manage the after-school hours’ traffic which is something that the department has to think about in right earnest.
For that matter, the ‘non-existence’ of the men-in-uniform during peak traffic hours when there is a free-for-all with drivers vying for motorable space pouring onto the roads from any which way they can is indeed a deplorable sight!
Does the traffic cell of the police department concern itself only with penalizing traffic offenders. I am sure that there are many other duties and responsibilities entrusted to the departmental personnel. Is it the basic ignorance about the functioning of the department which has prevented personnel in the lower rung of the hierarchy from exercising their authority over miscreants who flaunt traffic rules and regulations. It would not have necessitated the higher-ups to draft a couple of traffic constables to check the parking of rent-a-cars at various stretches in the city otherwise, and after receiving complaints at that.
It is however shocking to realize that the traffic authorities need to be goaded into action despite such situations being rampant on our roads.
The civic authorities too could play an effective role in checking such unwanted practices. Creating additional public parking facilities across the city to decongest roads, the onus is on the city fathers to consider multi-storey and underground parking facilities. In any case, roads are not for parking vehicles.
