Rampant corruption in Hyderabad Traffic Police

HYDERABAD: Despite the claims of senior officers, collection of monthly ‘mamools’ (slang for corruption money) by traffic police from petty vendors is continuing unabated in the capital.
Vendors are being allowed to continue their business only after coughing up anywhere between Rs.400 to Rs.600 per month out of
their meagre earnings. If they fail to pay this amount they are forced to compensate police in kind or are being fined repeatedly. In
some instances, where the vendors try to evade their demands, the police literally chase these vendors away or seize their merchandise.
Police authorities can remove anything that causes obstruction to the vehicular traffic under Section 39(b) of Hyderabad City Police Act.

To guide the police, municipal authorities have specified areas where hawkers and pushcarts can be allowed by delineating Green, Amber and Red zones.
Green is a free zone where hawkers can be allowed to do business without any problem, Amber zone is an area where vendors will be allowed only on specific days and timings and Red is a restricted area where no business should be allowed.
Since not many people know these zones, some police personnel are threatening vendors that their wares will be seized even though they are in green zone while others are allowing vendors to operate even in red zone, a police personnel said.
“Saifabad area, under which Necklace Road and adjoining areas fall, is placed under red zone. But even a casual visitor can see that the area has many pushcart vendors and hawkers. Some officials have specialised in formulating the exact amount that one has to pay and the days this amount should be collected,” he explained.
“Vendors would like to do their business on the roads where there is good traffic as they can expect better sales there. They sometimes obstruct traffic, but police personnel are cashing in on this eagerness among vendors to mint some money,” the official said.
But while some policemen are making quick moolah, it is the petty vendors who are in tight spot. “We hardly earn enough to feed our family even after struggling for whole day. With these demands from traffic police our earnings are now under a squeeze,” Mohammed Ishfaq a flower seller in old city said. The pressure for giving bribes has increased recently, he added.
Most vendors pointed out that enforcement authorities seize their pushcarts along with the goods, which are mostly perishable. “Once the cart is confiscated, it’s a Herculean task to get it back from the police station. Even after the pushcart is brought back, most of the goods get damaged resulting in losses,” a vendor argued. Rather than facing these hassles, vendors prefer to heed to the police demands, he said.
“Even bystanders can observe police taking away our goods for failing to pay the bribe. It has indeed become a common practice,” he rued.

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• No respite to petty vendors as ‘mamools’ continue (thehindu.com)

Will a new signal system improve Hyderabad traffic?

Nemmani Sreedhar

HYDERABAD: With the much delayed Hyderabad Traffic Integrated Management System (H-TRIMS) project finally gaining steam, the aging and often ‘dysfunctional’ traffic signals in the city are set to fade into the twilight of an era that is marked with chaotic traffic.

The decades-old traffic signals installed are beset with a host of problems ranging from lack of connectivity to inability in configuring the signal timings properly. But if the H-TRIMS project takes-off as per the plans, the city will see a better traffic management within a year. Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) won the bid for installing the ultra modern signal system under the H-TRIMS project on Tuesday.

“One of the most important reasons for the present traffic chaos on the city roads is lack of proper signalling system. How can police control the traffic when the signals themselves fail?” a senior police official said.

No power backup

“The present signalling system has no power backup because of which signals go blank during the power cuts and also result in fused bulbs. Apart from this, there is no possibility of synchronizing the present signals to optimize the traffic flow during the peak hours,” he explained.

In contrast, the 221 signals that are to be installed under the H-TRIMS project are completely wired with one another and all of them will come with power backup facilities. Each signal point will also be provided with countdown timers, and have a provision to set signal timings manually or from a control room.

That is not all, the cameras provided at each signal point will keep a watch on the traffic flow and will automatically increase the green light duration on the side that is witnessing heavy traffic flow.

Control room

With all the signals connected to the control room, the traffic police will also have a greater control over the overall traffic flow in the city and can take timely action to maintain a smoother vehicular moment.

The new system comes with a few more promises. To facilitate the movement of pedestrians, the signals will have an ‘all red’ duration when the traffic from all sides will be stopped. The duration changes for each signal according to the pedestrian volume.

Detecting breakdown

Since the signals are connected to the central control room, detecting a breakdown at any signal point becomes much easier, officials added.

The number of traffic signals installed in the city are168, while the number of signals removed as not necessary are 27. The number of signals to be up-graded under H-TRIMS in city are160 and the number of signals to be up-graded under H-TRIMS in Cyberabad area are 60.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/article2936862.ece