Appointment of a Superintendent of Police for Traffic Control Wing makes no difference to the problem of locomotion her in the Imphal.
Driving or walking, both suffer equally if it is the street of Imphal.
The comforts expected from driving a car is now a distant dream with traffic managers in the state fails to prove their efficiency.
The construction of Bir Tikendrajit Fly over and the widening of the roads seem to have no use with the authority failing to manage the situation.
We do not simply blame the authority, the people too have responsibility.
But it is the paid government authorities who are assigned for the job to make the traffic flow smoothly.
The state of Manipur has been witnessing a phenomenal increase in the amount of vehicles an indication of the rising social status of the public and improving economic conditions in the state.
While these factors are welcome sign, the fact remains that the concerned authorities have failed to keep pace with the times and the changing social scenario in the state resulting in heavy traffic jams and delays which needs to be addressed immediately.
The short term policies and systems being implemented from time to time in an attempt to ease the congestions and traffic jams have not been able to alleviate the problem in any way, on the contrary these ad-hoc measures have managed to confuse the public and compound the problem the authorities have been trying to solve.
The formation of Traffic regulation and parking committee has not been of much help, and one can only wonder if they are functioning at all.
Queries put up to the concerned departments have only resulted in more bewildering responses a classic example of the effectiveness of passing the buck around that has been at work in all government set ups.
While formulation of policies and systems to control and regulate traffic may be a beginning in the right direction, the fact remains that the increasing number of vehicles need additional space to accommodate them and juggling acts of the traffic system by the experts, however efficient and experienced they may be, will not bear fruit.
Construction of additional parking spaces at strategic locations, bypasses and flyovers, and most importantly providing subways at important and crowded junctions will go a long way in reducing these problems.
Construction of public utilities does not automatically guarantee improvement their proper usage is as important an obvious example being the use of footpaths by the vendors and shopkeepers to stock and ply their goods forcing the pedestrians to walk on the road.
The need to streamline and re-orient the traffic police personnel by empowering them with more appropriate is also being felt by the public.
Turning a blind eye to the irregularities being committed by the drivers of various public and commercial transport vehicles in consideration for a “quick handshake” has been well documented despite the dangers and inconveniences such greedy acts causes.
The present government ministers and high ranking officials may not be feeling the burden such traffic jams causes as they seem to have a prerogative of the right of use of the road over the common public but unless some concrete steps are taken up very soon, the only option that would be available to them would be to use their feet with their retinue of escorts and assistants wading through the impossible traffic surely a distracting relief for the stranded common public on the road.
Source: Imphal Times
