ARMY and BDR Jawans have again been pressed into service for traffic management in the metropolis. We have been given to understand that this aims to beef up DMP (Traffic) in its efforts to streamline the traffic anarchy. The Jawans will primarily be concentrated at the traffic intersections. but if need be, they will oversee vehicular and pedestrian movements at other points of the city as well. By all indications, the Army personnel are set for a longer stint on the road than before.

We welcome the sense of discipline, efficiency and skill which the army have brought to bear on traffic management whenever they were called out to help. Also, we notice the government's recognition of the fact that traffic has gone out of hand requiring some contingency measures to beat it into a modicum of discipline.

We do appreciate the government's realisation, belated though, of the need to give the citizens a reprieve from the stranglehold of the daily traffic. But the situation being what it is — structurally — we don't think it leaves any room for adhocism.

The way we look at it, the traffic management issues will have to be addressed on a three-some footing: short-term, medium-term and long-term, but not too longish to be sure. Under the immediacy' category should fall steps to end unauthorised parking, keep the intersections clear upto 100 yards on all sides, eliminate occupation of roads by hawkers and builders, end free-for-all unauthorised plying of rickshaws, install more back-to-back traffic lights, mark the lanes and do away with buses stopping indiscriminately.

In the medium term, raise the strength of traffic police, train and equip them properly, visibly enhance their status, and so on.

It is in the long run — but only in a time-bound sense — that we must try to remove the deep-seated structural deficiencies like the extremely limited road space relative to the number of vehicles and traffic turn-about ratio which has a bearing on overall traffic, both inward and outward. Better road engineering holds the answer.

Successive governments must bear the responsi-tnlity for having allowed the traffic mess to grow to tills magnitude. This ought to be now a top priority co ncern with the incumbent government.