Johnas Sequeira
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Additional pics supplied
Mangaluru, Sep 21: Mangaluru has been growing at a fast pace in every field, be it education, business, healthcare or industry, and with growth, the traffic in the city too has increased drastically. The roads as well as construction being largely unplanned, the situation is growing worse each day. The traffic department and the district administration are no doubt worried, but finding solutions is not an easy task.
However, a remedy does seem to be round the corner, thanks to the efforts initiated by Joe Gonsalves, a nonagenarian who has had long years of experience in driving not only in India but other countries too. As per his proposals, the traffic department is now all set to introduce Traffic Warden Squad (TWS) with the involvement of students for better management of city's traffic.
The 94-year-old Joe Gonsalves has over 75 years of experience behind the wheel, driving not only in the city of Mangaluru but also in countries like England, United States and Canada. He is also aware of the history of traffic situation in Mangaluru from 1930 onwards. Moreover, Joe has been very closely associated with the department of traffic, and held discussions with the officials concerned with crime and traffic and particularly with S Murugan, commissioner of Mangaluru, Uday Nayak, assistant commissioner of traffic and other officers of the traffic police department. During the course of his discussions, he made constructive observations regarding the prevailing traffic situation, and his ideas were well received and a proposal to have a Traffic Warden Squad in Mangaluru was sent to Bengaluru by the police department. In the meantime, Uday Nayak and Joe Gonsalves made visits to several colleges and held meetings with the students. As a result, a good number of students volunteered as traffic wardens.
It is learnt that the state government has already given the green signal to proceed with the Traffic Warden Squad proposal.
What's more, the traffic department has appointed and designated Joe Gonsalves as the chief traffic warden, Mangaluru, with five deputy chief wardens and a workforce of about 30 wardens to start with.
Speaking to the daijiworld, Joe Gonsalves said, "There has been a sharp increase in the number of road accidents due to various reasons, the prime reason being reckless driving and non-adherence of traffic rules by speeding, overtaking from the wrong side, parallel parking etc. Therefore it is necessary that problems created by the public should be solved by public. It is often felt that we are a fault finding machine rather than a fact finding machine.
"In order to contribute something to my hometown I took up this task. I am happy to make pointed reference that we got a lot of support from institutions like Milagres College, St Alloysius Technical Training Institute, School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya, St Joseph's College, Jeppu and St Agnes College in gathering the required human resource," he said.
ACP (traffic) Uday Nayak speaking to daijiworld said, "This concept of traffic warden is already existing in Bengaluru and Mysuru. These are voluntary organizations to help the department to regulate the traffic and to ensure its smooth flow in the city. As the police department has shortage of staff this squad would help considerably. We have got the necessary permission from the government and we would be starting this shortly. People are coming forward to offer their service. This is completely an honorary service and no remuneration would be paid. Students have volunteered for the task. The department is concerned about these students and has taken care to ensure that the service rendered by them will not adversely affect their studies."
Traffic Warden Squad (TWS)
TWS will have Joe Gonsalves as chief traffic warden, and Alan, Deenath D'Sa, Nelson and O D'Cunha as deputy chief traffic wardens. There will be around 30 traffic wardens and the squad would be enhanced eventually if necessary. The chief traffic warden would be working with ACP (traffic). Traffic police officials like Mohan Kotary, Suresh Kumar, Manjunath, Shivaprakash and other officials of the traffic department will coordinate with the squad to ensure implementation of traffic rules.
The organisation is set up with the following aims and objectives:
- To make vehicle drivers aware of their responsibilities in respect of road rules
- To conduct road safety and traffic education campaigns in collaboration with the traffic police for the benefit of motorists, pedestrians and school children
- To assist the traffic police in directing and regulating the vehicular and pedestrian traffic, whenever requested upon to do so
- To collect or formulate suggestions for improvement of traffic and forward the same to the higher authorities
- To report traffic violations, whenever noticed, to the traffic police
- To assist the traffic police department in any other activities like organising special drives.
- To organise traffic education campaigns and traffic training camps for school children in association with the traffic police.
Let us cooperate and join hands in making this initiative a success.