Residents perturbed over 'too much strictness'

Till recently, those not obeying traffic rules were having a field day. But ever since ADCP Traffic Dhruv Dahiya has taken over the reins of traffic, the "over-strictness" of the police has perturbed all. A homemaker, who has already been punished and challanned thrice in the past few months, said: "I am going to leave driving. Every second day, I am being challanned for one reason or the other. Yesterday, I just took a call of my daughter (from Delhi) and the police stopped me and issued a challan. I argued and pleaded but to no avail. There should be some leniency." But the strictness on the part of the ADCP traffic is being appreciated as well by many residents, who feel that now public is cautious while driving. They avoid parking wrongly and do not talk on mobile phones because they know that every time they are stopped by cops for violating traffic rules, they will have to face harassment and shell out a few bucks to get back the documents.  

VIP culture 

Even after 70 years of independence of the country, VIP culture dominates in every walk of life with the ruling elite having replaced the foreign rulers, who treated people as their subjects with lines clearly marked between the rules and the ruled. It is rather unfortunate that the very political leaders, who gain power with votes cast by the common man, put on airs once they get elected. The police 'bandobust' on VIP routes, cavalcade of vehicles with sirens blazing and flow of traffic blocked from where leaders are to pass is a common scene. The mindset of the police has hardly changed since the British Raj. The other day as a VIP was visiting somebody's house in Civil Lines (purportedly on a private visit), all streets, main road and feeder roads leading to the house were blocked by the 'over-zealous' police personnel for more than half-an-hour. "An elderly person, riding a scooter, who was stopped from going to his residence by the police during this period, said sarcastically - "Democracy still has a long way to go in this country.".

Contributed by Shivani Bhakoo and Kuldip Bhatia