More Traffic = More Oil!

All compartments seem to be filled with dreams and hopes. You could see 100’s of people boarding from different stations filled with plans and hopes, some good, few bad and many evil. I am off to visit my family to have fun time with them for a week after which I would return to Bangalore and get back to work. Hope all the good dreams of all those nice people in this Island Express gets true. The train was parked in platform 3 from the time I reached there around 8 p.m. I was actually shocked to see that some women were attracting people into the dark compartments due to no lights given until 9:15pm. These women were making sounds to get attention by needy men. I found few guys going in too since almost all others waited outside the trains until the lights came. These women and guys were swallowed by darkness when railway police came for rounds.

I had been wondering what India really possess like those oil rich countries. As everyone out here would think, "Yeah, it really is talent". But our discussion is not on talent right now. What about making money from public for something that they won't digest and neglect to sure? That is to mint money from traffic rules. Idea might seem to be crazy but it really would do wonders.

Have a look around yourself and you would see few hundred riders everyday not following any rules or with vehicles with no valid documents and much more including stolen ones. Every state government could generate few million Rupees if the traffic police really start doing their job rather than just looking alone for people with vehicles registered out of state as in the case of Bangalore. If you look at the amount of people not wearing helmets on every other road you would understand how much money we are talking about. Not following lane rules, over-speed, not respecting old riders, not following traffic signals, cutting one ways, smoking while driving a public transport vehicle, spitting on bike riders from bus, parking in no parking places & much more. All these seem to be a common sight and part of life here in India. We believe that this cannot be corrected and better left alone. This is the attitude we as a nation needs to change for the development of this country. Couple of days back, I took Mysore Road towards Kalasipalayam. I encountered block for around 20mins to get past few blocks. I was all the while thinking lot of people or vehicles out here might be the problem. I was shocked to see what the real problem was. On one side of the road itself there was two lanes of vehicles parked; note that it is the Mysore Road which is busy throughout the day. Apart from this illegal parking; there are street shops on the main road leaving a whole track behind them & selling towards the center of the road. I could see policemen coming in bikes from other direction when it was a one way track on either side. They came to shop banana leaves for dussera. Then there was bike parking which was in two layers on one side & again promoted by policemen. Three policemen stood next to the signal talking while vehicles were going from all directions neglecting in the signal on such a critical road.

We citizens of India should not stop ourselves from expressing what is really wrong and coming up with solutions which can not only correct the system but also create a better environment for future generations. Imagine our traffic police going to get stricter and make people really follow the rules. Do you think the current police force in any state in India can handle the volume we are speaking about in case of vehicles and drivers? I would say never! This makes it a clear case of under staffed groups. Now why are they really understaffed? It could be because rulers or governments don't take it as a priority right now. But what if they really understand how much they are going to generate in fines, will they recruits more traffic policemen? Still not sure, since that’s how India works.

Consider that we have enough staff; do you think they would stick to the big plan and make it happen for government to generate revenue from fines? It needs to be seen as it happens to be frank. But what if government keeps a commission system based on the revenue they generate legally with no complaints from riders? Will it work? It can also work negatively where people are troubled n fined for no reasons. As I write this, I think we need to think of express judiciary systems which we lack.

We as a country needs to revisit the laws and regulations written in mid-1900 and rephrase or customize it based on current century. This step needs to be considered at some point of time by every country. Why not we Indians pioneer it? Many of our laws seems to be out-dated and neglecting the technology growth all around the globe. Last day I happen to fill indemnity note for the Railways and still found a column caste in there. The only thing they wanted me to write was name, age, father's name, caste and profession. I understand without proper scrutiny it would be impossible to remove the caste from Indian forms and law books. But something that we can definitely do right now is to make it an optional column. Any citizen of India should be given rights to fill in caste only if he needs to utilize the privileges that governments provide for the underprivileged. But otherwise he can opt not to fill caste if he finds it unsuitable based on his conscience.

We really have a long way to go and we definitely needs to work together as a nation forgetting the diversity and also demolishing the selfishness in us.