14 hours shift, no public amenities, habitual offenders and much more: A day in the Life of Noida Traffic Police!

(26/12/2017) Noida :

Sight of a middle-aged traffic policeman on the side of a road sipping tea or resting on a chair easily becomes a topic of complaint in present era of social media rage. We expect him to be terminated, suspended or called off from duty for not functioning as expected. But how many of us actually realize that most of these traffic police personnel’s are overworked and may require a little respite during their 12-14 hours duty.

Sitting in our comfortable offices and homes and going gaga over growing office amenities in MNC’s have we ever wondered where exactly do NTP staff goes for to answer natures call? In a city like Noida which has no public toilets, it is bewildering to realize how traffic police personnel’s manage such long working hours. Suddenly ODF status of this ultra-modern city sounds more like a myth!

Owing to requirement most NTP personnel’s are on duty for 14 hours a day, no matter pollution, cold or rain. It is a well-known fact that NTP is extremely short of staff. From Jewar-Dadri to Ashok Nagar and Sector 62, NTP has much less staff to even put one man at every alternate crossing.

Apart from this on an average NTP caters to minimum 4-5 VIP movements in city every day (We don’t realize it because that doesn’t cause traffic snarls due to their effective working) . During VVIP visits taking place even outside the district, large number of NTP staff is stationed there, leaving city more vulnerable. As per reliable sources, just few days back when President Kovind visited Allahabad, around 20+ staff from NTP went there for to help manage the traffic.

In 12-14 hour shifts NTP staff has to manage peak time rush, deal with habitual offenders, attend to ‘unruly’ well-connected lawbreakers, manage VIP movements and much more. In a city like Noida, there are large number of habitual offenders who don’t mind paying fine and repeating the mistake. The attitude remains unchanged, after all going by the books even ‘Khaki’ has its limitations.

Not so long ago a social media friendly TI of Noida was threatened by an alleged Ex-IAS officer after the former stopped his wrong lane driving, red light jumping vehicle at a busy Noida crossing. The soft spoken, well-meaning TI let it go in concern of over stretching the issue.

If “Tu Jaanta Nahi Mere Baap Kaun Hai” attitude wasn’t enough to deal with, NTP personnel’s also have to face the new threat of getting photographed in doing anything other then duty on road. No we aren’t talking of bribe, which for sure needs to be dealt with strictly but in current scenerio even a well-circulated photograph of a police personnel sitting on chair or bike during duty time can get them a notice, no matter how long they have been standing attentively on work.

While we were all expressing our displeasure and discontent over horrific levels of air pollution’s in the city and demanding for office-school leaves, NTP personnel’s were managing traffic on the roads. They were the one’s managing city borders and influx of traffic when heavy vehicles were banned entry into Delhi.

It was after a senior NTP official jokingly quipped that department employees should be examined by doctors to check whether ‘NTP personnel’s have lungs of steel or something’, the measures to get pollution mask through a CSR partner was implemented.

So that is how NTP manages the traffic of our district every day. Think hard for a moment and next time while you are on the road, don’t forget to thank those who ensure that this city keeps moving despite all odds. A packet of biscuit or a cup of tea might be appreciated as well!