Traffic sergeants are, apparently, in a rat race to file cases against violators of traffic rules on Dhaka streets. On an average, they have filed more than 100,000 cases and realised Tk 40 million in fines a month during the first ten months of the current calendar year. The numbers are twice the cases filed and fines realized during the corresponding period last year.
Motor cycles, covered vans, human haulers and private cars are the main targets of a section of hyperactive police officials these days. They are seen booking the drivers of motor vehicles even for offences that are until recently used to be overlooked. The ongoing drive of the traffic sergeants, it seems, are pre-meditated.
But why is this sudden change in attitude of the police officials engaged in controlling the mega city's traffic? Why are, these days, on-duty sergeants who used to be more interested in earning a few extra bucks by coaxing the motor vehicle drivers are so eager to issue tickets for violation of traffic rules?
Some people have an impression that the sergeants get a share in the fines realized from the traffic rules violators. But the fact remains that they do not get anything. The traffic policemen tend to be hyperactive on Dhaka streets because their superiors want them to be so. The latter, according to a recent newspaper report, want the police sergeants to prove their competence by issuing as many tickets as they can.
Why is the DMP so much interested in punishing violators of traffic rules? The DMP top notches reportedly have fallen back upon widespread punitive actions as means to discipline the Dhaka's erratic traffic system as most other steps have failed to deliver results. They tend to believe that the situation has improved due to the latest harsh action.
But the situation on the ground does not anyway support such a claim. Dhaka streets are still gripped by traffic chaos and people remain stuck up in long tailbacks for hours together during peak hours.
One striking feature of over-enthusiastic police actions is that some of those are quite discriminatory in nature. Covered vans, private cars and motor cycles, rightly or wrongly, are the preferred targets of the police officials. They, on most occasions, are found to be very indulgent in the case of private passenger buses. If violation of traffic rules is a criminal offence, then buses are the top most violators. They commit such crimes with total immunity all the time.
Most passenger buses plying the Dhaka streets lack necessary gadget, back lights, indicators etc., and give a damn to traffic rules. On-duty traffic constables and sergeants, deliberately, overlook such violations. Why do the police demonstrate such weaknesses while dealing with the operators of private passengers buses?
A popular perception about so-called deliberate indulgence to buses is that some buses are owned by policemen in others' names and the transport owners and workers are a strong bunch of people having a strong political clout. So, they can easily get away with their crime. But should the situation be like that? Why should only private car owners, motor cyclists and owners of covered vans be punished? Laws, in most cases, do not discriminate. It is the enforcers of law who discriminate while applying the same. The police do need to understand violation of traffic rules is only one cause behind the current sorry state of traffic movement in Dhaka. Unless and until other reasons responsible for traffic problem are addressed properly, meting out punishment to traffic-rule violators is unlikely to deliver any tangible results. However, this is not to say that traffic rules violators should go unpunished. But enforcement of traffic rules needs to be non-discriminatory and total.
