The harassment from the traffic police is becoming a major issue in the state of Goa with many locals complaining about the unnecessary harassment by traffic police seeking vehicle documents but the superintendent of police has denied the same saying the police do not for documents since all the information is available online.
On the backdrop of Mumbai police issuing the directives to the traffic police not to harass the people on the pretext of checking documents the locals in Goa seeking similar directions for Goa Traffic police who stop any vehicle unnecessarily on the pretext of documents and issue them challans.
According to the circular issued by the Mumbai police commissioner the traffic police at the check-post need not focus on checking the documents instead they should be more concerned about the smooth sailing of traffic. “traffic police will not inspect cars, especially when there is a checkpoint; they will merely monitor traffic and focus on ensuring that traffic goes regularly. They will only halt a car if it is slowing down traffic,” stated the circular issued by Commissioner of Police of Mumbai, Hemant Nagrale.
According to the report published by the local daily Heraldo one of the tourists from Mumbai has claimed that he was harassed by traffic police once while commuting from Calangute to Panaji. According to him, he did not break any rules and he has all the documents available when the police stopped him. “It was unnecessary harassment by the Goa Traffic police who were asking me irrelevant questions despite finding all the documents in place,” he said.
When the media contacted the Panjim traffic police PI Brendon D’Souza he said that the traffic police do not harass anybody on the issue of documents since it’s available online. “We are not harassing any local or tourists, we stop only those who violate the traffic rules and we hardly ask anyone form the document since nowadays all the documents are available online once we enter the vehicle number and hence there is no question of harassment,” he said.
According to him, the traffic police is doing a good job of spreading awareness amongst the locals on the importance of following the traffic rules. “We are creating the awareness in the schools and industries in the form of presentations. Speaking on the hefty fines, he said it is important to impose the fine on those who break the rules. “Only awareness and warnings do not help if the law and order are not imposed,” he added.
