The next time you assault traffic police then you might have to bear serious consequences as traffic cops will be offered wi-fi cameras to record incidents of assault on them. These cameras will record the arguments motorists have with traffic police and footage will be sent to the centralised control room. The recording can be used as a vital evidence to keep an eye on traffic violators and miscreants assaulting traffic cops. Thus action can be taken against the offender on the basis of the video footage.
Of late, there has been a sharp rise in incidents pertaining to attack of traffic police as they had filed a complaint regarding this matter with the government. Traffic department had asked cops not to get involved in a tiff with motorists and instead issue warning to them. The death of traffic head constable Vilas Shinde raised several questions about safety of traffic cops while discharging their duties.
“Motorists often behave rudely with us and don’t cooperate with us even if they have jumped signals. Hence forth they will have to rethink before violating traffic rules as the wi-fi cameras will record these incidents and send the footage to the centralised control room,” said a traffic cop on the condition of anonymity.
“The initiative taken by the traffic department to offer wi-fi camera is a right step to curb traffic violations. Today people don’t follow traffic rules and there has been a sharp rise in the number of road accidents in the city,” said Ajit Diwakar a Kandivali resident.
“Traffic police live stressfull lives due to rising number of vehicles in the city. It has become difficult for them to monitor the vehicular traffic in the city. They have to stand at junctions to regulate the traffic and also have to bear with the rising pollution in the city. Many of them fall ill due to pollution,” said Supreet Shah a T.Y B com student from Borivali.
There has been a surge in the number of incidents pertaining to assault on traffic constable while discharging their duties. On August 23, 2016 traffic head constable Vilas Shinde was attacked by two brothers at a petrol pump based in Khar. He was admitted in the intensive care unit of Lilavati Hospital in Bandra (west) and died nine days after the incident. Shinde was a resident of a BDD chawl in Worli. Originally from Satara, he is survived by a wife and two children.
On Oct 6, 2016, constable Vishnu Joshi, 45 was thrashed by three men on bike at SV junction in Borivali. He was later admitted to hospital.
