The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Highway patrol teams directed to stick to their duties

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 08, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Highway patrol teams directed to stick to their duties

K.T.Sangameswaran

Personnel were booking a large number of petty cases under the Motor Vehicles Act Personnel were booking a large number of petty cases under the Motor Vehicles Act

CHENNAI: : Taking serious note of reports of some Highway Patrol Force (HPF) personnel exceeding their brief, the State Traffic Planning Cell has asked the police in the districts to ensure that the personnel discharge their functions as stipulated by the Government.

Police sources told The Hindu that letters were sent to the Inspectors-General of Police of the four zones, asking them to draw the attention of the officers concerned in the districts so that the patrol personnel gave no room for complaints of harassment.

What prompted the Cell to act was that during a review of the functioning of the HPF — done regularly — it was found that the personnel were booking a large number of petty cases under the Motor Vehicles Act.

As per the Government's decision, the entire 3,850 km of National Highways in the State has been divided into 80 stretches.

Eighty vehicles with necessary communication equipment, including mobile phones provided to the Sub-Inspectors heading the team, have been asked to patrol the stretches to prevent murder, dacoity, robbery and theft, to regulate the movement of vehicles and to assist accident victims. For each patrol vehicle, there are two teams of personnel, each working 12 hours a day.

Traffic violations

It was noticed that the teams had been booking, on an average, 50,000 cases of traffic violations a month.

This would cause much harassment to the public, the sources said. There were reports of HPF personnel indulging in avoidable practices in the name of vehicle checks.

In two recent instances in Madurai and Tiruchi districts, senior officials found that patrol teams were unnecessarily stopping lorries and harassing drivers.

The personnel were ordered suspended from service.

The authorities were told that booking a large number of petty cases was not the primary function of the HPF.

Such cases might be registered only for blatant violations, committed in the presence of the patrol parties, or as part of an organised vehicle check.

The sources said it was difficult to check how far the patrol parties were of help to accident victims, though it was claimed that they rushed the injured to hospitals.

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