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Traffic police get serious about jaywalkers

Syed Tash fin Chowdhury
■Raffle police have started fining pedestrians who violate traffic laws on the stretch of the road from Farmgate to Hotel Sonargaoncrossing.
The drive, which began about two weeks ago, was initiated to generate awareness among the general public.
"We are trying to cure the tendency of the city dweller to disobey traffic rules," said on duty constable Abul Khair of Tejgaon police station. According to Section 12 of the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1983, traffic police can fine pedestrians for violating trafficlaws.
Traffic policemen in civil clothes have been posted at various points on either sides of the road to spot the violators as they try to cross to the other side over the road divider which is not allowed.
Asoon as someone commits the offence a policeman approaches him and takes him to the on-duty sergeant writes a
receipt with an official stamp on it and finesTk five.
"Over the past few days, we have continuously requested people whom we have fined to use the over-bridges or the underpass for their own safety," said sergeant Altaf Hossain of Tejgaon Police station.
According to Sgt. Hossain, all kinds of people disobey the law but interestingly, most violators are educated persons.
"Due to the ego factor, most of them prefer to argue rather than pay the fine," said Hossain.
When someone refuses to pay up, he is detained on the spot for half an hour or taken to the police station where he is later handed over to family members.
Sgt. Hossain feels that the average rate of traffic law violation on this particular stretch was gradually decreasing since the initiation of the drive.
"Yesterday, we had fined 600 people while today, the number has come down to
500, "said Hossain.
Recently, when the Karwan Bazar underpass was undergoing renovations, people were allowed to cross the busy road atanypoint.
But now the underpass has been reopened to the public and there are a couple of foot over-bridges in the Farmgate area. Still people tend to cross over the dividers.
"We always put up fences in order to restrain such activities but the violators still cross the road by uprooting the wire or fencing," said a traffic policeman.
"We took up the initiative to partially solve a major traffic problem of the city," said Mazharul Islam, deputy commissioner (West) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
"Hopefully this initiative will lead to further improvement in traffic systems in other areas and will also generate awareness among members of the community and the police force," addedlslam.