Don't carp about high fines, be a disciplined driver

Pic/ Getty Images

At a recent event in a city college, top police commissioner Sanjay Barve and Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Madhukar Pandey addressing youth at a panel discussion on partnering with them for a better tomorrow, touched upon the subject of traffic fines.

This was just days before the new, stringent and burn-a-hole-in-the-pocket fines were going to be imposed in the city.

At that time, the top cops stressed that the government had not imposed these fines to earn revenue. No government will use fines as revenue, they said, but these were scaled up exorbitantly maybe, for one straightforward aim, to get all vehicle users to adhere to rules.

To save lives.

While these fines have sparked outrage and some arguments may have validity, like the crippling paucity of parking in Mumbai, we would like to see a safer city when we are on the roads.

Instead of raising a hue and cry over these fines, let us try to never give the cops a chance to fine us. We want to see the same outrage and anger when traffic rules are broken. There are times when we see vehicles, and many of these are two-wheelers, blatantly disregarding red lights. They simply ride through.

At a seminar in the college referred to, all the cops including a former commissioner expressed dismay, shock and alarm at the increasing propensity of two-wheelers to come through the wrong way. It does not happen in any other part of the world, they said.

So, these fines call for introspection and correction rather than ire at how high they are. Rules have to be obeyed and drivers have to put sanctity of life as priority.

Do not simply carp about stinging fines. Become a disciplined driver, respect the fellow driver and most importantly, the pedestrian.

Follow the traffic cop. The fines will matter less because the opportunity to impose them will disappear.

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