It is good when vigilance is meant to keep people from breaking rules. But it becomes a nuisance when the innocent go through unwanted trouble every now and then. Lately, the city traffic police have been flagging down motorists rather arbitrarily, in the name of routine checks. Over the last few weeks, the traffic police have been randomly stopping vehicles and, for some reason, it is always the young riders. “I was on my way to college and we had a test. I was running late and suddenly, out of nowhere, the traffic police stopped me near the Parade Ground. When I asked them why they curtly asked me to produce my DL and registration papers, they said it was a routine check. I had all documents with me, but all this delayed me for no fault of mine,” said Prakrati, a student at a city college.
A traffic police officer claimed that such random checks are to check on the past offences committed by motorists. Contradicting this, information put up on the Karnataka State Police and Bangalore Traffic Police website states: “As per an order given to all traffic policemen, they are not supposed to stop any motorist just for checking documents. The motorist has the right to refuse the officer’s request. However, a motorist’s documents can be checked if he has committed an offence”. The ground reality is different as these are checks being done rather arbitrarily.
Additional Commissioner of Police (traffic) M.A.Saleem, however, denied that any drive is being undertaken by the traffic police. “An officer of the rank above sub-inspector has the right to stop a vehicle if there has been a visible flouting of the law. The law and order police can flag down vehicles if they are suspicious, not the traffic police”, he said.