Rush-Era on Dusshera

Diksha Grover

Dehradun, October 9, 2008:Expecting traffic on Dusshera, is much definite and obvious for any Doonite. Also, expecting major injuries and major road fights is also not a big deal on the so-called occasion. With the parade ground coagulating as many people as it could, angry road fights and loud dramas added to the Ravan’s role on Dusshera in Deharadun.

According to Manoj Kumar, a police officer in the Kotwali Police Station, in the past six months there have been 5 cases of tragic deaths and almost 20 major injury cases that have been reported in the Dallanwala area only.

What added to the chaos in many areas of Dehradun, was the sudden shift of all traffic personnel and police officers, to the parade ground. In places like Survey Chowk, Ghantaghar and Cannaught Place the influx of traffic created a bottleneck, heating the volatile drivers.

When the common bikers and car racers were surveyed, maximum number of people said that fines and challans help drivers obey traffic rules. Analyzing from the survey, when asked about following the current traffic rules, all of them had a clear mark on ‘yes’. However, when asked to define traffic some common words like- chaotic, unpredictable and irresponsible were mostly used.

Though, the survey proved beneficial to understand the rash and speedy business of travelling, what added to its meaning were the suggestions that people had. A lot of them believe that one way traffic in the narrow and bottleneck areas will help in the movement of traffic in Dun. While, congestion and hap-hazard networks of roads add to bumping and collision of vehicles.

According to some, smooth traffic is possible by strictly obeying traffic rules and having a strict challan system (something similar as followed in Delhi) for the traffic rule breakers.While enough promotion of the "Yatayat Mitra Yojna" (or the friend of traffic scheme) has been done, it seems to have had a lesser impact due to public involvement. However though the Uttarakhand Police are taking the help of general public to streamline the growing traffic woes and to spread awareness about basic traffic rules and the need to abide by them, citizens in general, refuse to move the gear.The ugly face of traffic in Dehardun is still quite dominant. There are enough reasons to poke the police and in return get poked back. But, while the pedestrians have condemned and criticized the fast and furious, the survey also proves that traffic has become better off from before.

Published in Hindustan Times, Dehradun