Morning rush hours turn nightmarish at IS Sadan

Santoshnagar: Commuters crossing the junction of IS Sadan XRoads find it nightmarish to cross the stretch during early morning rushhours. Caught in logjams for at least 10-15 minutes, despite signals at the junction, motorists blame cops with cameras, whose primary focus in the recent years has shifted from controlling the traffic to taking snaps of traffic violators.

One of the busiest junctions of the Santosh Nagar area, the IS Sadan XRoads witness heavy traffic during the morning rush because of presence of number of schools and colleges. The college-going students and parents dropping their children to schools find it difficult to move forward, even as the sole traffic cop engaged for the duty remains busy taking snaps with a small camera. "Has the traffic cops' priorities have changed.

Earlier they used to control the traffic, but it appears that his task is now limited to imposing challan," wondered Akhlaq Ahmed Ansari, who drops his children at school daily. He said that every day during morning hours between 8 am and 9:30 am, the situation of traffic remains horrible and logjam continues sometime for at least 10 minutes. "On the stretch, several meters of traffic are witnessed in all fourdirections at the signals of IS Sadan XRoad, but traffic police is not bothered about the problems faced by motorists and they are seen busy taking pictures. Interestingly, the same traffic policeman controls the signaling system, while holding camera in another hand," added Akhlaq.

As there are dozens of schools and colleges in area, everyone is in rush for to droptheir kids at schools and colleges. Office-goers are also caught in the traffic jam each day. "Priorities in the recent years have changed, as the task of traffic cop has turned from controlling the traffic to clicking photos of motorists for imposing challans," said Fayaz Khan, a regular commuter.

Regular commuters observed that each day for imposing challan, traffic police has two lucrative spots. One is at IS Sadan signal near (at traffic controls) and another located at some distance at the signal opposite to Hyderabad Sainik School. "While waiting in a traffic not a single day passes when elderly people cry loud, calling these cops to control the traffic first and then focus on imposing challan, but, unfortunately, they just hold camera and keep clicking photos," said Mohammed Amjad.

"In morning hours, every commuter will be in rush. We are not saying they should stop imposing challan for traffic violation, but request them to first control the traffic. It is a fact that some motorists are violating traffic rules, but traffic policeman is not doing justice to his duty," Mujeeb Khan.

Daily one can see autowalas and some commuters taking the lead in controlling the situation and easing the logjam in the early morning hours. Policemen are seen only when they want their monthly targets completed, he added.