The Divisional Commissioner of Patna should  be applauded for taking steps for traffic jam busting in Patna.
The people who use red or blue light on top of their vehicles may not be aware about ground reality of traffic control operations. Those who never used the privilege of beacon light their voice do not reach ears of authorities. It is good that vip culture through beacon light is ending.

I wonder the policy decision of administration in control of traffic is not clearly known to people of Patna.
The aggressive craning away of vehicles by private operator parked at places not marked as ‘No Parking’ raises some legal issues. This craning away operation has almost stopped traffic police from performing its normal duties.
The craning away business is being carried by private operator in the name of the Divisional Commissioner of Patna as the boards displayed at the crane vehicle suggests.

Now, few lacunae in operation Jam Buster :

1. The authority to crane away vehicle cannot be delegated to driver and khalasi of crane vehicle. Most of the time there is no police constable or even homeguard jawan is available with crane vehicle . There is no police officer like ASI or SIat or  near the site of craning away operation. This gives free hand to private operator to crane away vehicle from any place, including places where No Parking board is not displayed.

2. I learnt that the administration has declared Patna as ‘No Parking’ zone. It says people cannot park vehicle a tany  place  which does not have ‘Parking’ board. Prima facie this is violation of power u/s 144 Cr PC. As per law whole Patna is valid for parking unless prohibited at any place by displaying ‘No Parking’ board.

3. The crane operator picks up vehicles from even deserted road where sign of ‘No Parking’ is not displayed.

4. The vehicle owner has to visit places like banks, hospital, doctor and pharmacy besides offices of government authorities. The crane operator picks up vehicle from such places of emergency. It amounts to harassment of innocent person. Such places must be compulsorily declared Parking zone.

5. Before start of crane operation administration, traffic police and municipal corporation should have earmarked Free and Paid parking zones through out Patna town. It is their duty to provide parking spaces as vehicle owners pay road tax, etc; to the government.

6. If making money through crane operation is not the objective then the vehicles may be craned away to a distant place from where the owner may receive his vehicle without paying any fee to the private operator. The harassment would be good enough punishment for any wrong parking.

7. The traffic police is found checking documents of mobike, etc, ignoring jam at chowks and round abouts. There are   hundreds of bottlenecks of traffic in Patna. There is rampant rash driving also. Large number of accidents are happening daily in Patna town. There are dozens of points where large number of trucks, tractors and tempos are stranded for almost whole day. We never find any traffic police controlling and guiding traffic jams except when managing VIP movement. Some times several and even half a dozen traffic constable are found checking documents of bikers in some corner while showing no interest in streamlining of choking jams which is happening near by. The traffic police advises people to take photo of rash driving and post it on App of Patna Traffic Police. Will the rash driver wait for 5 minutes to enable complainant to take photo of rash driving. There is total chaos on the roads. The duty of traffic police cannot be replaced by App of Patna Traffic Police. If it is so then services of large number of traffic personnel may be utilised for crime control and maintenance of law and order. The present system has made them unaccountable. Even App of traffic police does not respond to any complaint.

8. There is always fear of obstruction to rescue operation of disaster management due to traffic jams all over Patna. For traffic police craning away of vehicles parked any where in Patna is the only priority as the operation is conducted by staff of private company.Neglecting duty of checking rash driving and jams at chowks and round abouts may cause greater disaster. Please visualise  situations when ambulance does not reach hospital in time or fire tender does not reach place of fire in time. If there is any big emergency the habit of  traffic police will add to the gravity of the situation.

9. It is high time authorities of administration and disaster management review performance of Patna Traffic Police.

10. There is urgent need of constituting a committee to regularly review performance Patna Traffic Police. It would be  better if some  responsible citizens are also included in the committee.