Police will use wit and humour of ‘Puneri Patya’ to bring about traffic sense

Police will use wit and humour of ‘Puneri Patya’ to bring about traffic sense

PUNE: In order to teach Punekars traffic sense, the Pune City Police Traffic Branch will put up signboards on the lines of the famous ‘Puneri Patya’. 

In an exclusive interaction with Sakal Times, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Tejaswi Satpute said they are trying everything to inculcate traffic discipline and now they have zeroed in on messages combining stern advice and concern with puns and wit. 

She spoke in detail about traffic issues of Pune and the plans for future traffic management for the city. She believes education (awareness), engineering (infrastructure) and enforcement (of traffic rules) is the way forward. 

“Pune has its own unique traffic issues. Therefore we need a solution which suits the city and ‘Puneri Patya’ is one effective method, which is seen as a hilarious and direct way of communicating. In the next few days we will put up boards with messages like if you are entering ‘wrong-way’ then the board will read: ‘This road goes to hospital, police station or Yamraj. If you still want to go, then go’. We hope to get the desired results with such messages,” the IPS officer added. 

She said, “These messages have humour, entertainment and education. I think it is not about troubling people, running behind them and hurting their ego. People are dying. It is our responsibility that people go about safely on roads. For that we are doing our best.” 

‘Head is more important than hairstyle’ 
Talking about the strict enforcement of helmet rule in coming days, DCP Satpute said, “Our aim is to educate as many people as possible. Over 100 two-wheeler riders who were not wearing helmets have died in accidents. One should understand that saving the head is more important than hairstyle or anything else.

Parents should realise that gifting a vehicle at the age of 16 to their wards is not the right option. They should wait till their children complete 18 years.” The officer said that not only helmet, but all traffic rules will be strictly implemented. 

Helmet rule: HoDs of govt offices to be apprised first
DCP Satpute said there are certain issues with enforcing helmet rule for government employees: First, it is difficult to identify them on the roads and checking their identity cards etc is a time consuming process. Therefore, head of departments of all 22 government offices will be informed of the helmet rule to pass on the message to all employees and then the crackdown on those not wearing helmets will start. The police began targeting government employees from Tuesday for not wearing helmets. The rule will be strictly enforced on all from January 1. 

Adaptive Traffic Management System
“Under the Smart City project, Adaptive Traffic Management System (ATMS) will be implemented in the city to manage real time traffic demand and improve traffic compliance. It will increase operational efficiency for traffic police as well as improve enforcement through e-challan. The traffic signals will be synchronised. While traditional traffic signals use pre-programmed timings, ATMS can sense the traffic and change pattern accordingly. So people will not have to wait unnecessarily at traffic junctions,” DCP Satpute said.

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