Mumbaikars have been flooding city police's Twitter feed with pictures of its personnel violating the law; traffic cops issue e-challans to the law-breakers
In the pictures and videos sent to the Mumbai Police, cops can be seen riding bikes without helmets, driving without seatbelts, and using fancy number plates for their personal vehicles
What happens when the guardians of the law blatantly break it? In 2018, they get called out on Twitter. Over the past few days, the Mumbai Police's Twitter account has been flooded with photos and videos sent by alert citizens, of policemen violating traffic rules while they are on duty. Taking cognisance of the complaints, the traffic police has issued e-challans to several cops caught on the citizens' cameras.
The cops have been receiving the tweets from a group of alert citizens every day. The pictures and videos show other policemen in uniform riding bikes without helmets, driving the official car without wearing a seat belt, driving on the wrong side of the road, jumping signals and using a fancy number plate for their personal vehicle.
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Citizens have been sending photos and videos to Mumbai police showing cops breaking all kinds of traffic laws while on duty
Surprised to see cops
Among the citizens alerting the police is Amit Sisodiya, who travels daily on the Sion-Panvel highway. "I was surprised to see cops issuing e-challans to guilty citizens and ignoring their own officers. So I started sharing photos and videos on Twitter. But mostly BMC and government vehicles are being e-challaned."
However, cops are being responsive when one of their own is reported too. When one Twitter user named Ajay shared the video of traffic cops riding without helmets near Sahar airport, cops responded to it immediately by sending the number of the e-challan issued to the guilty cops. Similarly, when one Aaditya from Andheri shared pictures of cops riding without helmets, an e-challan was issued to them too.
'Taking a very strict stand'
The traffic police is taking serious cognizance of such complaints. Speaking to mid-day, Amitesh Kumar, joint CP, traffic said, "We've been sensitizing our policemen to ensure they do not violate the traffic rules and regulations. However, it is a fact that some aberrations have been noticed. Wherever we find our people violating the rules and regulations, we are issuing challans to them under the Motor Vehicles Act."
"We're also taking a very strict stand against these people, and they have been counselled through departmental procedure as well. Our overall position is that of zero tolerance on the issue. The number of such violations has gone down in the recent past," he said.
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