<div><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">Traffic police and RTOs face massive manpower shortage; existing officers putting in extra hours to fill the deficit</span></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>At a time when Chief Minister Prithiviraj Chavan would be inaugurating the Road Safety Fortnight starting today, its very own departments -- Traffic and Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) -- are grappling with a massive manpower shortage. "We have only 14 officers who are a part of a flying squad to keep a tab on errant motorists," said a senior transport official, requesting anonymity. According to RTO officials, to fill the deficit, the existing officers are forced to work overtime on a regular basis.</div><div><br /></div><div><img src="/imagedata/2012/jan/RTO.jpg" border="5" align="" alt="" /><br /></div><div><i><span style="font-size: 8pt; "><b>Slogging it out:</b> Just like the RTOs, even the Mumbai Traffic Police isu00a0</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size: 8pt; ">working hard to cope with a deficit of 1,633 personnel against theu00a0</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size: 8pt; ">sanctioned strength of 3,353, curtailing its ability to execute multipleu00a0</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size: 8pt; ">drives simultaneously. Representation pic</span></i></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Massive crunch</b></div><div>Similarly, even the Mumbai Traffic Police is working hard to cope with a deficit of 1,633 personnel against the sanctioned strength of 3,353. "The Traffic police can either increase the manpower or augment their surveillance via CCTV cams. This will help them keep an eye on all the junctions, and eliminate the need of being physically present at the spot," said A V Shenoy, a traffic expert.</div><div><br /></div><div>Referring to Traffic department's latest crackdown against drink driving, sources from within the department disclosed that the manpower shortage has curtailed the department's ability in executing multiple drives simultaneously.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Official word</b></div><div>Confirming the vacancies, S K Sharma, Transport secretary, said, "There are several posts lying vacant and soon, something will be done about them."</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>1,000</b></div><div>Total number of vacanciesu00a0across all the RTOs in Maharashtra</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>250</b></div><div>Total number of vacancies at Andheri, Mumbai Central and Wadala RTOs</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>Statistics</b></div><div><b>Year<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span>u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0u00a02007<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0u00a02009<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>u00a0 2011 (till Nov)</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Rash drivingu00a0<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>9,921<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>6,212 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0u00a07,687</div><div>Speeding<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre">  </span>15,448 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a017,841 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a010,548</div><div>Jumping signal<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>234575 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a03,76,510 u00a0 u00a0 3,39,850</div><div>Lane cutting<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>87771 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a0 u00a01,12,278 u00a0 u00a0 1,12,560</div></div>        

Traffic police and RTOs face massive manpower shortage; existing officers putting in extra hours to fill the deficit

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