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The will to break law
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A whack on your pocket for jaywalking, a day in the cooler for cellphone-driving, but is there a will to implement or is it just lily-livered sentiment? Serish Nanisettifinds out
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PHOTO: G. KRISHNASWAMY
Catch me if you can Cellphone driving is dangerous for everyone
If the Delhi police has started challaning jaywalkers, then the Andhra Pradesh High Court wants people talking on the cellphone jailed for a day and drivers switching lanes fined. Luckily, in Hyderabad, there are no pedestrian pathways on which peopl
e can be forced to walk and also there aren’t enough policemen either to implement the High Court’s sentiment that cellphone drivers be jailed for a day. Outside Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s house in Somajiguda stands the man who will have to implement the new law if the State Government does what the courts want it to do. He is Swamy. Not the Guide kind of swamy but someone who has taken the Ayyappa deeksha. With white shirt, khaki trouser, a green chord running through his shoulder belt to hold the violet plastic whistle, a tattered beret and a black muffler drawn around his neck, the barefoot rule-enforcer is a striking sight. Swamy works for a private security firm which has a contract with the Police Department. While Swamy gets a salary of Rs. 3000 per month, he can tweet down any driver and challan him for up to Rs. 500. Ahead of him is the tow-away vehicle on which a khaki clad cop is there with black sandals and an army baseball cap. He is a Home Guard who also gets Rs. 3000. If the law enforcers come in rainbow hues, and disparity between the power and their salary is so obvious, is it any surprise that the implementation is what it is?
We asked a pub hopper P. Sunita, a college student, how much would she pay to avoid jail if caught while talking on the cell (she confesses to doing it all the time). “One night in jail? My God. I will have big trouble at home. I would be willing to pay even Rs. 5,000 to wriggle out of the situation,” was her reaction. “I hope they won’t catch people SMSing,” says Sunita who drives an Alto.
“I want to buy a Mercedes. Did you ever see a policeman stop or challan anyone driving a big car? No. They usually don’t because they know that the big man might be well connected and would pull some strings,” says Subhash C. who drives a Palio to work and gets stopped frequently because of the Karnataka number plates of his car.
Step inside the traffic police station at Toli Chowki and try to crib about the fruit vendors who crowd out the vehicular traffic between Mehdipatnam and Rethi Bowli and you get the real story. "You think we are not trying to enforce the law. Just see these," says Mohammad Aziz pointing to a huge room littered with impounded mechanical weighing machines and scales. A number of push carts are piled high outside. “Leave alone enforcing lane discipline, we are unable to evict pavement vendors who encroach onto the roads. Sometimes it is goon pressure, sometimes it is religious pressure, sometimes it is social pressure that forces us to stop taking action,” says a police officer in the traffic department.
“Today, laws are being made at the whims and fancy of individuals. Just take the case of Dr. Venugopal where a law was created just to get rid of one person. Most law makers don’t know why laws are being made. They are not laws, but imposition of thinking of somebody either for personal benefit or to help his group/party or at the diktats of the powers or to conform to treaties,” says Ramesh Nayani, a practicing High Court advocate.
“Cellphone driving is something like smoking. Both stand on the same footing. Can we incarcerate a person for smoking?” he asks rhetorically.
As laws get tougher, and the enforcement weaker, the disdain is likely to become more galling.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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