Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Arun Mohan Joshi who has recently been promoted to the rank of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) had made better traffic management in the district one of his top priorities soon after assuming office of the SSP in Dehradun.
Earlier during his statements he had said that they will be working on a new traffic management plan taking the existing infrastructure into consideration. However, even after about five months of him serving as Dehradun SSP the traffic management issue in the city has still not been resolved. When asked about the issue he said, “We have taken certain steps after which we had also seen some results. Presently the force has been deployed in various programmes that are being organised as the New Year celebration is coming.
After that we will work on the traffic plan. It is still our priority and we plan to make it work in the most organised manner.”Another senior district official on the condition of anonymity said, “We don’t even have enough force that we ought to have as per the requirement of the year 2000. If we start revising it as per the present date the number of required police force in the provisional state capital will be well above what we have now.
On top of that there are several other duties here including some administrative work as well that are not there in any other district. Half of our force stays buried under tonnes of paperwork. Others are either in VIP duty or any other programme.” Another official said, “It is difficult to focus on routine policing when almost daily there is some new programme here that requires police assistance. Unlike most other departments our priorities change almost instantly, which is one the reasons that we keep pushing our regular police duties back.”
It is pertinent to mention here that DIG and Dehradun SSP Joshi, who was rumoured to be getting another post, will now be staying in Dehradun as SSP for at least next five months. SSP Joshi had earlier stated that if he stayed at his post here he would be working to better the traffic situation here before the summer season starts in June.
