Verification of documents: DGP's tweet eases motorists' blues

Bengaluru: Drivers fear seeing police officers routinely looking for papers since they may have to stop unnecessarily if their documents are in order, and if they are not, they may have to pay a fine or even go to the police station to produce their documents for inspection.

However, things seem to be getting better for them since there is an awakening among the police that such a checking system was archaic and feudal. Thanks to the tweet of the Director-General of Police and Inspector General of Police of the State Praveen Sood on Monday, the motorists may be spared from this ordeal.

But the motorists still hope that this time the traffic police was serious as the tweet has come from their super boss. Many top cops have already tried their hand at stopping this menace and the country's top traffic management expert MN Srihari had also concurred about the disadvantages of police doing the 'routine traffic checking' Officials known for their 'reformative policing' in the past have expressed their reservations against stopping motorists for 'routine checking' in the cities.

The normal motorists were more conscious of the importance of maintaining their paperwork, and secondly, it was n­ot any simpler for the police to pull over the cars and two-wheelers in roaring traffic conditions. The young traffic cops have to risk their necks to do that and also generate traffic snarls through routine checks. But that does not mean that drivers should relax about maintaining their vehicles in good condition and having all of their paperwork in order, if there is a traffic infraction by the drivers, an inspection will be required.

When he was the Mysore City's Commissioner of Police, M.A. Saleem, had discovered a more compassionate and refined solution. He provided a number of traffic management proposals in a presentation to the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) in New Delhi at a special session on traffic management. One of them was a function that won't require drivers to stop in regular traffic. The offending vehicle's video surveillance footage will be collected, and the RTO database will be used to retrieve the driver's address so that a notice can be sent to that address. This system is already functioning in many cities around Karnataka, but why still, the police are checking by the roadside, which is what the top police minds are now thinking.

When on duty, inspectors can identify problematic automobiles at least one kilometre away. The specific police officer who has been asked to halt a vehicle in the current traffic situation will practically endanger his life in order to do so in the sea of moving automobiles. Traffic was roaring on all sides, making it dangerous for the drivers trying to halt.

Ajit Pai, a senior driver, though it was quite challenging to change lanes and pull over when the police ordered us to halt for inspection. It was unsettling, dangerous, and unquestionably dangerous for both drivers and law enforcers.

The police chiefs predicted that the recommendations to the BPRD would eventually filter down to the level of the police stations, possibly with some alterations and enhancements. It is still not clear that DGP Praveen Sood's concerns expressed in his tweet are also reflected in other parts of the state in cities like Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubli-Dharwad and Belagavi.