Hitch hiking Cops feel it’s their birth right

Do you sometimes feel like asking for a lift from a passing motorist? Most of us hesitate but the cops in the city do not think twice. It is a demand in disguise. At times it is just a swish of a hand and motorists think they are being stopped as a routine check but realize that it is a free lift.

Hitchhiking or piling on is a better word for cops who are seen at various places stopping two-wheelers, auto rickshaws and even cabs. “Don’t you ever ask money for the ride,” is what most share-auto drivers get to listen from cops. “In fact you are lucky to be spared for not being asked to produce your vehicle documents. This is the perception the cops give and the ride they ask is not a demand but your service towards them,” according to some of the citizens.

However, a traffic cop of Trimulgherry Police station feels otherwise, “There is no harm in asking for a lift from a passing vehicle, at least on humanitarian grounds. We too don’t jump into vehicles just to save money. Having no other option and to get on with our other duties, we try to hop in vehicles.”

Experts say that though hitchhiking is not considered to be illegal but there are some places where one should avoid such as highways and intersections which could be leading to accidents and obstructing traffic, experts say. Despite knowing of the traffic hazards, cops just jump on the road asking for lifts from any vehicle they feel like.

Scenes can be witnessed along the stretches like Begumpet traffic junction, Bowenpally market, Sangeeth crossroads, Public Gardens, Masab Tank and Jubilee Hills. Very often the cops are seen asking for lifts standing on the roadside as if stopping for a routine vehicle check. The poor motorist seeing a cop asking to stop goes uneasy and brings the vehicle to a screeching halt only to find that the cop is pleading for a ‘free’ lift.

Mustering their wits, the motorists having no option simply ask (but not wholeheartedly) the ‘unruly’ cop to take the pillion seat. This is a routine affair among all traffic cops asking for free lifts by stopping moving auto-rickshaws, trucks, cabs and motorcycles. “Many times I was stopped by traffic policemen in front of Bowenpally vegetable yard.

If the vehicle is full, they take the seat next to the driver otherwise the backseat,” said Nagaraju, an auto-rickshaw driver of Old Bowenpally. “The cops forcibly stop our cabs and barge into and demand us to drop them to their destination. The customers in the vehicle sometimes feel embarrassed by the unbecoming conduct of cops,” a cab driver said adding that the cops should at least respect their uniform before resorting to such things.

By: Victor Rao