Rajasthan Police Runs a Special Drive to Check Reckless Auto Drivers in the City

The number of reckless drivers is constantly on the rise in the city as speeding auto rickshaws continue to flout norms in high-traffic areas. Pink city autos ferrying students constantly violate traffic rules, thereby risking the lives of innocent school children and countless pedestrians. We’ve often seen autos cramped with kids fleeting on the roads, without a care for the world. To keep these offenders in check, Rajasthan police has launched a special drive to punish them. The cops are running a special traffic campaign at earmarked places to prevent tragic road accidents.

Last March, the Rajasthan traffic police conducted a survey where we found that many auto rickshaws didn’t have safety cages and first-aid boxes. Despite several reminders, many drivers insolently violated the rules. Though standard autos have the capacity to accommodate 4 to 8 people, they carry up to 12 children and make them sit at the edge of the auto seats. This exposes them to outside traffic and there are higher chances of students falling from bumping vehicles that inflicts deadly injuries on them.

Many of these drivers don’t make sufficient money to arrange first-aid boxes and medicine kit. To ensure student safety, the cops made it mandatory for schools to share this responsibility with the drivers. They’d launched awareness campaigns and specifically requested the schools to fire notorious drivers, yet they haven’t taken any concrete step against offenders.

Due to shortage of sufficient school buses, the parents are compelled to hire auto drivers for daily commuting. Besides, school vans charge excessive prices and have pre-designated rules, which is an added source of concern for parents.

Seeing that schools have failed to crack a whip on the drivers, the cops have taken it on themselves to discourage them from violating traffic rules. India’s first fully-digital police control room ‘Abhay Command Centre’ is furnished with an integrated traffic control management system. It’ll keep an eye on red light/control line violation, over-speeding etc. Not only this, the areas with high footfall, such as Tonk Road, MI Road, Narayan Singh Circle etc will be connected via CCTV cameras to the main control room to keep an eye on violators.

The government is positive that deploying advanced digital technologies will prevent road accidents and strengthen the existing traffic problems in the city.