Srinagar, Mar 26: Prompted by frequent complaints of alleged misbehavior and “snail’s pace” of mini buses in the City, the Traffic Police on Monday woke up to warn the public transporters of strict action should they fail to adhere to the norms.
 
THE DIRECTIONS
 The development took place during a meeting chaired by Deputy Inspector General of Police, Traffic, Vijay Kumar at his office chambers while others who attended it include SP Traffic Srinagar Haseeb-Ur-Rehman and the representatives of minibus transport association.
 “The main objective of the meeting was ‘Creation of culture of disciplined driving among drivers of minibuses’ and they were directed avoid slow pace of traffic movement/traffic jamming,” an official handout released by DIG said.
 “It was stressed upon the minibus representative to cooperate with the Traffic police for the implementation of traffic rules in true letter and spirit, to avoid slow pace of traffic movement,” it added.
 “It was enjoined upon the minibus drivers to ensure no overloading and over speeding by minibuses, stopping only at identified bus bays for boarding/de-boarding of passengers…reservation of ladies seats,” it added.
 When contacted the SP Traffic City Haseeb Ur Rehman said the bus drivers would have to stop only at the designated spots.
 “We won’t allow them to take people for a ride in the garb of frequent halts,” the SP assured.
 
WILL ADHERE, SAY MINIBUS DRIVERS
 Chairman of Minibus Association Sheikh Muhammad Yousuf and other representatives assured that their community would educate their drivers and conductors in this regard.
 “They have also agreed to deploy their representative at bottlenecks in Srinagar City to assist Traffic personnel,” the handout added.
 
THE CHRONIC PROBLEM
 For the past several years, Aam Aadmi has been accusing the bus drivers or taking them for a ride by driving at allegedly snail’s pace.
 For a student traveling from Lal Chowk to Kashmir University at Hazratbal, it takes him or her around an hour to cover the distance of mere seven odd miles. Similar are the complaints of people living in Soura for whom it takes around an hour to reach Lal Chowk.  From Qamarwari to Lal Chowk  the buses even when overloaded, as per complainants, resort to frequent stops of  around 20 minutes each.  And the travel from Lal Chowk to Batamaloo, as per commuters, is worst as it takes over half-an-hour to cover the one odd mile distance.

LITMUS TEST
 While the people had been complaining against the menace, the public transporters seemingly enjoyed patronage from the corridors of power.
 This is because last year some officials had found public transporters being “chronic offenders” for having being caught multiple times for the same offence, particularly overloading and frequent stopping.
 In a bid to teach a lesson to the “chronic defaulters”, the officials had sought cancellation of licenses of the accused. But before the cancellation could realize, such officials were transferred. For now to tame the allegedly erring lot seems to be a litmus test for DIG Traffic Vijay Kumar and his team particularly, Haseeb-Ur-Rehman.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00:00 IST