Facebook activism helps Ahmedabad traffic cops keep offenders in line

If you thought Facebook was all about social networking, good or bad, you aren’t wrong. But then the fact that the networking site has opened newer vistas to its multiple usage is what begets it more “likes” — and the user brigade includes city’s traffic cops too — who, armed with comments on parking issues to auto drivers not following norms, are treating matters seriously, this time.
Why this time? Well, after a gap of almost one year, ATP – Ahmedabad Traffic Police – page is launched once again. For last one year the page saw no activity as the cops lost the password to the page.

Luckily, they could retrieve the password recently and were overwhelmed with the response the page received. Happy city dwellers flooded it with different kinds of queries, complaints and demands.

“At present, we are having 3,271 members of ATP. We are receiving more than 15 comments, complaints or suggestions from the public daily. We have also started taking action based on these comments by public,” claimed DH Parmar, deputy commissioner of police (DCP-Traffic).

On Wednesday, a visitor vented his ire on the page by posting a comment referring to the absence of traffic police at AEC crossroads. The citizen pointed out to the fact that the crossroad almost regularly suffers traffic jams, but the on duty traffic cops sit idle on the road side.

“After seeing the comment, I immediately sent a message to the supervising cops of that area to verify the facts. I also asked them to give me a report of the actual situation, based on which, I will take action against the on-duty cops” Parmar assured.

Again, a few days back, a youngster vented his anger by posting a photograph of a car with dark films on the window. He claimed that the car belongs to policeman and asked the traffic cops to first punish their own men before punishing other commuters for flouting rules.

“Based on the car registration number, we acquired details about the owner from RTO and learned that the car belongs to a constable of Karanj police station. To set an example, we not only removed the dark film from the car, but also penalised the constable,” Parmar said.

Parmar further said that there are many suggestions coming from public about enhancing road safety. He also claimed that every problem cannot be solved overnight as some require support of civic authorities too, such as putting traffic signals or dividers.

“Recently, we took an initiative to bring quick solution of two such complaints received to us on Facebook. After visiting and analyzing the spots, we have constructed one permanent divider near a road at Aroma school in Usmanpura and put barricades on Airport road leading to Indira bridge as temporary solution to traffic problem,” he claimed.