Team Herald
PANJIM: The State has been reporting a spike in the number of fatalities on its “killer” roads and to add to its cup of woes, the Goa Traffic Police are facing acute staff crunch.
The sanctioned staff strength of the 14 Traffic Police Cells across the State was reviewed in 2004. Major traffic cells of Panjim and Margao are presently operating with less than 50 per cent of the sanctioned strength. Adding insult to injury is that today the vehicular population ratio has surpassed 2,300 vehicles for a single traffic cop on roads.
Goa has been topping the charts in the country for all the wrong reasons. The State has highest per capita accidents taking place on daily basis. From January to September this year, 195 persons have lost their lives in road accidents.
This prompted the government to take immediate measures to curb the accidents. A public forum discussion was held to design a Road Safety Management Plan.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had already ordered a road map within 15 days of the forum discussion by including public suggestions. But the staff shortage is hampering the traffic police functioning often leading to traffic jams on major roads.
The Traffic Police cells that play a pivotal role in ensuring traffic safety and Motor Vehicle Act enforcement are helpless on account of staff shortage.
An observation made by a participant at the Forum, Anant Agni from MARG Trust grabbed the attention of the authorities. “The number of traffic police needs to increase,” said Agni.
Today, Goa Traffic Cells have 650 personnel manning the traffic across the State. Compare it to the vehicular population, which according to the government records is 15.4 lakh, which increases during tourism season.
Panjim Traffic Cell PI Brendon D’Souza said he has 59 personnel to man at least 25 to 30 important roads in his jurisdiction. The sanctioned strength of this cell is over 100 policemen and presently he has less than 50 per cent of the sanctioned strength.
The tourism season will witness vehicular traffic at its peak.
According to PI D’Souza, there are 8,000 more vehicles on roads during weekends in Panjim areas further burdening the already overburdened cell. Similar is the case of the Margao Traffic Cell. PI Gautam Salunke said he has 15 constables who work on a rotation basis across the town for controlling traffic and for enforcement purposes while the sanctioned number of personnel is 50.
Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Shekhar Prabhudesai said staff shortage is an area of concern; however the recruitment of staff will soon solve these problems.
“By that time we will be ensuring that all important road points that need manning have policemen to make sure there is discipline on roads” he said adding that there will be interim immediate solutions to the road problems soon.
With the recruitment of over 900 police constables in the department the problem is expected to resolve. However, it is going to take at least a year for this to happen as these new recruits will first head to training and only then they will be inducted into the Goa Police service.
