Scrap the ‘reward component’ from the Traffic Sentinel Scheme - By Nisser Dias

More than a year after the ‘Traffic sentinel scheme’ was introduced by the Goa police department, vehicle owners have started feeling the heat as a result of which motorists along with elective representatives have began targeting the sentinels.

It started in Ponda when the members of the public used force and threat to close down a business. In Borda a sentinel was caught, abused and his mobile snatched by public, interestingly one traffic sentinel was part of this mob. In Vasco another was caught, beaten, his car damaged and turned on its side.

Margao Municipal Councillors along with former Congress chief minister Digambar Kamat held a protest rally. Congress Mahila president has condemned and demanded withdrawal of the scheme.

The anger towards the sentinels is because the general public along with lawmakers want the lawlessness, indiscipline and rowdiness to continue on the road. While the role of the sentinels is being questioned, nobody is ready to condemn the traffic violations.

Undoubtedly there are pros and cons of the scheme. From the very introduction of the scheme, it should have been promoted as a ‘social service’ to curb traffic violations.

Director General of Police Muktesh Chander the architect of scheme did not apply his mind. He completely lacked the foresight. He envisaged downslide in traffic violations and generation of revenue. He developed a win-win game for the government and sentinels without taking greed factor into consideration. And the result is while the government coffers are being filled, the traffic have gotten greedy.

Lakhs of motorists have been issued fines for various traffic violations since the scheme was introduced, the government has also earned crores of rupees in revenue but the success story is yet to be written.

The final judgment is still out there to analyse the success of the scheme and that verdict is whether motorists in Goa have imbibed the need for discipline driving, obeying traffic rules, value for one’s life and that of the other and more importantly whether the motorists have understood that licence to drive is a privilege and not a right.

A casual observation - be it in cities or on village roads – motorists have discarded the ethics of driving to the dustbin. Speaking on the mobiles while driving is rampant everywhere, driving against the  flow of traffic or through no entry zones, multiple driving on two wheelers is widespread, speeding, jumping lanes while driving on the highways, driving without wearing helmet and seatbelts is all abusively prevalent.

The transport department, the licensing authority (RTO) and the traffic cell have all utterly failed in its duties to inculcate fear of law in the motorists.

Director General of Police Muktesh Chandar in November 2017 showing concern for increasing motor accidental deaths hit upon this idea of ‘traffic sentinel scheme’ through society policing – one could also interpret it as soft vigilantism.

For a year the cash registers have been ringing incessantly. As per police statistics the traffic cell handed out lakhs of rupees, cars and bikes to the traffic sentinel. Rs. 25 lakhs earned from this scheme was paid to Goa Electronics Ltd. (GEL) to develop a Traffic sentinel APP.

The success of scheme is good news but on the flip side - sentinels saw opportunity for full time employment, some other saw prospects of enhancing their income while the police department was busy filling the otherwise empty government coffers.

That was the failure of the scheme. The ingredient of social service was lost in the bargain as the focus remained on generating revenue by enrolling every tom, dick and harry as a traffic sentinel. More than five thousand have enrolled as traffic sentinels. One can image how much of revenue is being raked in.

Infact police data indicate that they have received as many as 600 traffic violations in a day from a single sentinel. The data also indicate that the police have paid as much as Rs. 8 lakhs for a single sentinel.

These figures were sufficient enough for police to realize that something was going wrong with sentinels but they did not pay heed to it as they were raking in huge ‘moolah’ and the violations were not showing any signs of decline.

Instead the violators found the solace they wanted in the politicians who are ready to sell their soul to keep their flock intact to win yet another elections. Councillors started making noises and carried out public protests, Congress politicians extended their support to violators, even a lady who is trying hard to get a Congress parliamentary tickets has denounced the scheme and demanded its withdrawal citing security reason for women.

But this is all talk and demands in the air as none of the politicians have demanded that the reward part of the scheme be done away with. The moment the reward component is withdrawn and the scheme is made totally ‘social service’ 90 percent of the sentinels whose main motto is reward money will rapidly withdraw from the scheme and only those genuine sentinels who want to see a decline in motor vehicle accidents, want discipline driving will stick with the scheme.

The next step should in the interest of sentinels who stick to scheme purely on social service basis. They should be armed with identity cards issued by the government. The government has also to put mechanism in place for the safety of the sentinels in line with that of the government servant.