Reference Herald report October 19 on this subject we have recently personally called on and given a seven page detailed complaint to Minister Rohan Khaunte our MLA and I strongly reject the statements of traffic DySP Dharmesh Angle as non factual and incorrect! I walk across the O’Coqueiro junction daily at least once at various times and I have rarely seen anyone challaned or even sternly warned! In fact I have to invariably berate the cops when standing around there for not doing their duty, but I have found it in vain!
People are indisciplined no doubt and those arrogant few require the “danda”/strict implementation of law with prevention better than cure attitude! I personally witnessed the MLA, DSP and all concerned authorities discussing the essential corrections to be done about 4 months back! Simple things immediately like painting/ shifting the stop lines where required, repairing/raising the speed breakers and so on. Bigger things like correctly placing traffic lights etc in due course.
To date hardly anything that has been agreed to has been done, I understand excuse is due to paucity of funds/staff! There are traffic jams daily at the turning into Defence Colony/ Kadamba road egress due blocking of access to ChogM road and NH17 to Mapusa, wrong parking and pedestrians have to fend for themselves! Indisciplined vehicles including huge buses and trucks regularly break the red light or go the wrong way as short cut. After all the fuel price rise demands shorter routes?
The other day a huge bus coming from Panjim late evening when dark, broke the red light whilst a lot of us pedestrians were starting to cross, blocked our way by stopping plumb across the zebra line to disembark passengers, and due to this obstruction delay we were caught in the middle as the traffic lights changed and vehicles zoomed on either side of us! Let us not be complaisant until we have a vehicle/bus mowing down pedestrians and then an enquiry and passing the buck for who is responsible like the train tragedy during Dassera celebrations in Punjab! We and the Press have enough evidence to hold the Police, PWD and government authorities squarely responsible for loss of lives and negligence of duty that has forced us to risk our lives whenever we step out due not enforcing rules and implementation of minimum precautions /actions as promised/discussed!
