The Residents Welfare Association of Modern Housing Complex organised a police-residents meeting on Sunday to address the grievances of the residents about the traffic in the area. DSP Traffic Chandigarh, Jaswinder Singh was present at the meet along with SHO Manimajra, Jaswinder Kaur. The main concerns raised at the meeting included choking of roads within the Modern Housing Complex (MHC) by traffic coming from the railway underbridge. Talking on the trouble created by the underbridge, President of the RWA of MHC, Gursewak Singh said, “It was nearly two years back when Kirron Kher inaugurated the underbridge and I was present at the ceremony. I had told the MP then about the problem of traffic which the residents of MHC will face because of the underbridge, but no heed was paid to our concerns. I have been penning down letters to the Chandigarh Administration for the last two years and only recently, one of my letter finally reached the SSP Traffic of the city.” The RWA raised the concerns about the issues of increased traffic, which has made the internal roads of the housing complexes unsafe for pedestrians. The residents complained of garage locks which were picked in the last 20 days. The RWA demanded the installation of speed breakers within the MHC to desist vehicles from over-speeding. There was also a demand for installing ‘no-parking’ sign boards, as several vehicles belonging to non-residents were regularly parked along the road leading to a reduction in space for traffic to ply. DSP Traffic Chandigarh listened to all grievances and said, “Installation of speed breakers is not a task undertaken by the police. It is under the purview of the Engineering department of the city, which is the cause of delay.” On the issue of no-parking signs, Jaswinder Singh said, “Road signage and road markings should be naturally installed when the roads are constructed. It should not be an act of afterthought. It does not come under the purview of the police department.” Chandigarh police also conducted a presentation on spreading awareness on the Motor Vehicles Act. Jaswinder Singh said, “About 3 per cent of the country’s GDP is lost in road accidents and this can be stopped by the citizens. A car driver has to be careful in following traffic rules. The same goes for the pedestrians crossing the road. A trend is seen that the pedestrians use earphones while crossing the roads. It makes the car’s horns inaudible to them, which can cause accidents. Everyone on the road has to be careful. Nothing is more important that the life of an individual.” The officer also demonstrated the proper use of helmet and elaborated on the need to buy helmets of good quality. The RWA also put forward a demand asking the city police to carry out challan drives within the complex to discourage wrong parking of cars. The demand for the construction of a link road around the periphery of the housing complex, touching the railway line, was also proposed. Elaborating on the need of a link road, Gursewak Singh said, “The link road will allow traffic coming from the underbridge to avoid entering the MHC and this traffic can directly go towards Panchkula. The Advisor to UT Chandigarh has agreed in principle to the proposal of the link road and we expect that there will be some progress in this regard soon.”
