HYDERABAD, Sept 3: Every single day residents bear chaotic traffic conditions in Hyderabad city as the traffic police and the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) seem to have turned a blind eye to the situation.

Traffic congestion is taking a toll on people and they have themselves resorted to trying and controlling messy traffic situations at clogged roundabouts.

Meanwhile, the city’s traffic police force is insufficient for controlling the increasingly messy traffic. Traffic police officials argue that they need around 500 traffic wardens to be able to control traffic adequately as the number of vehicles increases with each passing day. However, currently more than 200 policemen are said to be working in the traffic wing but the working strength is around 150 and they are engaged in different police offices, courts, driving licence branch and administrative work.

They said that broken roads of the city made matters worse for them and listed areas including Kohinoor Chowk, American Centre, Gari Khata, Saddar, Society Chowk, Hala Naka, Tilak Incline, Cloth Market and Gymkhana Chowk where more traffic wardens were needed to cope with the pressure of traffic.

Traffic officials argue that that at least four wardens are needed for handling the Gari Khata (Hyder chowk) in peak traffic hours. They said that two policemen each are deployed in the morning and evening shift but it is beyond their capacity to control the chaotic traffic. Resultantly, they leave it to the people to take care of traffic rush on their own.

Even just outside the SSP office on the main signal of Sindh University old campus, traffic policemen could be seen standing on the footpath as vehicles become stuck from three different directions.

But to make an extra buck, the wardens are seen fining vehicles parked in the no-parking area. There are four tow trucks for hauling vehicles parked in the no-parking areas and two traffic constables each are designated to work with them.

“For instance one traffic police constable can’t handle the number of vehicles at Society Chowk so ultimately he fails,” a traffic section officer.

On the other hand, traffic wardens also seem powerless to control young men who do acrobatics while riding motorcycles without silencers and also emitting the sound of gunfire, causing other commuters to jump out of their skins. These young men blatantly jump signals and whiz past traffic wardens.

The SO subscribed to the view that traffic police was simply not interested in imposing penalties and did not even fine these underage drivers. “These boys don’t have a licence and drive bikes at breakneck speed while we do nothing,” he said.

Another problem is encroachments on roads which are the main hurdle in the smooth flow of traffic. Instead of taking steps against unauthorized structures and occupation of space, staff of the HMC’s anti-encroachment cell encourages them to do so in return for money in connivance with police officials.

Meanwhile, members of the business community who raise a hue and cry over the city’s civic issues also tend to ignore this fact and don’t urge fraternity members to remove such structures and extended portions of shops and eateries.

The traffic police is also said to be making recoveries from cargo trucks whose drivers are required to pay hefty amounts on a weekly basis to the ‘beaters’ who work in the offices of Traffic DIG and SSP.

“We have to arrange Rs50,000 per week for these ‘beaters’. Each cargo truck entering via three check posts has to arrange the amount to be paid to these beaters,” said a former traffic superintendent officer.

“When a traffic police constable indulges in such practice he pockets some money and keeps some as a justification for making recoveries for ‘senior’ officers. Usually a card is issued for Rs100 to each truck at these entry points from where around Rs5,000 are collected and then handed over to the beaters.”

Similarly, said a former SO, check posts at Badin and Baldia bus stands also pay a fixed amount to the traffic police.

Even the HMC Administrator Barkat Rizvi seems to have given up after an attempt at removing encroachments from the Station Road. “It is really difficult,” he said.

“There is no willingness on the part of stakeholders and then there is interference of different quarters.”

He said that the entire system suffered by mismanagement and if the HMC staff didn’t step in then the traffic wardens remained ineffective. However, he conceded that encroachments on roads took place in connivance with HMC staff and police officials.