By Ankit Thapa
There is no doubt that many roads have been constructed in the country in recent years. Even most difficult areas and also congested places like Kathmandu for instance are seeing such construction all the time. Sometimes it is frightening to see roads in areas where even firefighters cannot reach in case there is a disaster.
It is no surprise that one hears of regular accidents on such roads and even in the highways. Why is this happening? Here this author feels that the total ignorance and lack of knowledge of the vehicle drivers and also the pedestrians are the main causes for such incidents to increase day by day. The huge flood of different types of vehicles and easy access people have to such vehicles because of an easy installment payment methods have further increased the number of vehicles on the road.
We all are alarmed at the growing number of accidents taking place in different places of the country which was unthinkable in the past. Has any decision maker or the planners thought about this aspect of the disaster we are seeing on the streets.
Just increasing fines to impress the authorities on how much revenue they have collected is simply not enough. More planning has to be done with the suggestion of the experts to decrease such types of road disasters.
And nobody has to be told that road accidents are taking place in an alarming manner. Such mishaps are taking place not only because of the bad condition of the roads, the carelessness of the drivers of the vehicles but also the inefficiency of the traffic police who should be in control of the roads but instead are only greedy for collecting fines mostly for themselves, but also are incompetent in their work.
During the monsoon periods like which we are seeing right now, such road accidents and chaos in the roads even in the cities take place more. Around the highways, mishaps take place more due to the bad condition of the roads rather than the carelessness of the drivers. At such times, the presence of the traffic police and other authorities also seem to be at the minimum. Many vehicle owners are dissatisfied by at the behavior of the traffic who is more interested in taking bribes, collecting fines for one way or the other, harassing the vehicle drivers. The public vehicle carriers seem to be more in the target of such traffic police.
Yes, the careless and rule breaking drivers should and deserve to sit down and listen traffic rules and regulations. But at the same time, the traffic police themselves must be made aware of road etiquette and in their behavior.
Unfortunately we have not seen such a scenario in the roads of this country. In fact this author himself has witnessed none less than one notorious chief of police parking his vehicle on the wrong side of busy Putalisadak street no matter what their work was. I knew a friend who lived there and I had gone to meet her in her rented room which did not naturally have a parking space. This sort of callous attitude of the very people who should actually be reinforcing road rules only punishing the general people while they themselves were breaking the same regulations. These were acts which enraged the people.
There is also dissatisfaction at the way the authorities act with the general people even at normal times. For example another act of the traffic authorities to not stop vehicles right at the beginning when unknowingly the vehicle enter at a one way street. The traffic police instead stay at the end of such one ways and then fine the innocent drivers. These officials should be standing right at the beginning point or they must put up clear sign boards saying that road is one way.
Following traffic rules is a mandatory duty of the people also especially the drivers but this does not mean the traffic police can act in a dominant manner misusing his or her power many times for their own benefit. Nobody mentions such short comings of the government but this issue must be mentioned by one person or the other.
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