Year on, Sirsa traffic lights costing Rs 17L defunct, cause chaos

Anil Kakkar

Sirsa, May 4

The lack of parking lots, increasing number of vehicles, encroachment by shopkeepers and other commercial establishments on the roads have led to a constant traffic congestion on the main roads throughout the day in Sirsa.

During campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections, the convoys of political leaders and their supporters have exacerbated the problem. Even as traffic management seems to be beyond the administration’s capacity, the issue of malfunctioning traffic lights in the city, too, remains unaddressed.

New traffic lights were installed at a cost of Rs 17 lakh after a hiatus of four years, but they, too, stopped working. Even after a year, the traffic lights are still non-functional, leading to traffic chaos in the city.

New traffic lights were installed at Lalbatti Chowk, Sangwan Chowk and Baba Bhoomanshah Chowk on the Barnala road in the city, but none of them is functional. Consequently, traffic is disrupted at all intersections throughout the day, leading to traffic jams.

The situation worsens in the afternoon and at night. Even though traffic police are deployed to ease congestion at these spots, accidents occur frequently at these intersections due to the faulty traffic lights.

The malfunctioning of traffic lights makes traffic management quite challenging. Despite spending lakhs of rupees, the administration has failed to maintain the traffic lights. Though the traffic police have been deployed at intersections where traffic lights are out of order, people tend to ignore their signals and manoeuvre their vehicles according to their convenience.

Rohit Saini, a local shopkeeper, said due to the defunct lights, people are facing a lot of difficulties. The absence of traffic police during the afternoon exacerbates the situation. “The administration seems indifferent to improving traffic management. People feel that the administration has installed traffic lights only for show,” he said.

Ajay Bhatnagar, a resident, blamed the administration for the deteriorating traffic management in the city. He said when lakhs of rupees were spent on the renovation of traffic lights, the contractor concerned should have been directed to maintain them too

Ajay said when the vehicles of officials or politicians arrive, the traffic police at intersections stop other vehicles to let the officials pass, as a result the leaders stay oblivious to the problems faced by the common man. “The administration’s lack of seriousness in improving the traffic management is evident,” he added.

Vicky Kumar, XEN, Sirsa Municipal Council, said he was not aware that the city’s traffic lights were defunct. He added that the civic body would immediately get them fixed.

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