Gujarat cops ill-equipped to handle traffic

In metros like Mumbai, where traffic requires round-the-clock monitoring, the traffic police are trained under professionals and senior poofficers. This is true in the case of other cities of Maharashtra.

Assistant Commissioner of Police R D Patkar of the Traffic Institute said: “Candidates for the constabulary are given 15-day training, while officers are trained for 21 days or a month. It is only when we have full assurance that the candidate knows the job well that we put him on field.” Traffic police personnel in Mumbai are also trained to use certain equipment required in managing traffic.

In Delhi too, a similar practice is followed. S N Srivastav of the training branch of Delhi Police said: “Under the basic training given by the Police Training College in New Delhi, the candidates learn a module on traffic laws and management. After selection, the potential candidates undergo a two-week training before they are assigned field duty with a senior officer. After the senior officer is satisfied with their performance, a young recruit is allowed to function independently.”

Pravin Gohil, a head constable with the Ahmedabad traffic police, said: “In the training, we were taught about traffic signals, rules and regulations. Recently, we have been told to use new equipment to manage traffic, but we are not yet trained to use them. Most of the time, we are not even given the instruments to use.”

The Gujarat Police Academy trains the state police force. In Ahmedabad, the Traffic Education and Training (TET) imparts training to the. As explained by TET in-charge O S Tiwari, in Ahmedabad, anybody from a constable to a sub-inspector is sent for training. They are given basic traffic education in three days and sent on field after the training class gets over. A batch is generally composed of 50 candidates. These batches run only when there are a lot of recruits in the department.

In Vadodara, where the traffic police is trained for 15-20 days, ACP Traffic, K M Chaudhary, said: “All policemen know traffic rules. Traffic police, as such doesn’t have special training. If policemen are transferred from the general police to the traffic department, they are then trained for some days. Constant transfers keep happening.” 

At the Gujarat Police Academy, the general police are trained. But the formation of any academy for traffic police seems to receive no encouragement either from the authorities nor from the police themselves.

Atul Karwal, Joint Commissioner of Police, said: “This is not an independent cadre. People go back and forth. The selected candidates are sent back to the general police if they are found inefficient. We do train the boys but before the traffic training, they receive the training of a policeman. Therefore, they need to just learn the traffic rules and regulations. I agree, we have almost one-third of the staff that we should have, but even the urban infrastructure of the city needs to be in place.”

When asked about specialised training or an independent academy for training the traffic police, Kishorsinh Ghelda, Inspector (Traffic Planning) said: “We don’t really require that. A three-day course is enough for them to learn traffic rules.”

Shivanand Swami, Associate Director of Centre for Environment Planning and Technology, however, feels that there is a need for an academy or more focus on the training of the traffic policemen.

“The major problem with the police here is the constant shuffling between the general and the traffic department. There is no certainty in a traffic policeman’s job in that branch. There should be more seriousness about traffic jobs and traffic issues. The training should not only be confined to just a brief , but has to be done regularly,” he added.