IG Punjab has sent a summary to the chief minister for allowing the traffic police to impose stringent fines on violators of traffic rules. The proposal is meant to control the traffic chaos on the roads. The suggested amount of fine is Rs500 for the motorcyclists and Rs1,000 for car drivers. One hopes the CM will not hesitate in approving the summary since the unruly motorcyclists and car drivers have made the lives of disciplined and law-abiding road-users miserable. Particularly, the motorcyclists creeping through the lines of cars stopped at the traffic lights must hauled up. They scratch the sides of the cars and damage rear view mirrors. And drivers taking turns without indicating too must be fined.
The provincial monitoring cell recently reported 537 road accidents within 24 hours in all the 36 districts of the province. Out of these, 129 accidents took place in Lahore alone. This clearly shows how dangerous our roads have become and how badly the traffic police have failed in controlling the traffic. No other measure to organise traffic would be as effective and as quickly as imposition of heavy penalties on the violators of traffic rules.
IFTEKHAR A KHAN
Lahore
