Some hits,some misses on Facebook pages

Within three weeks,the Chandigarh Traffic Police’s Facebook page has emerged a policing tool against traffic violators – provided the vehicle involved is registered locally. Complaints against various traffic violations are being posted on the page,all by Chandigarh citizens,but the police have managed to act only local offenders and not those from outside the city. Since its launch on June 3,the Facebook page has seen pictures of various violations – riding a two-wheeler without a helmet,stopping on zebra crossings,talking on the mobile while driving – posted by citizens. The police have served challans on 195 of these violators.

Four policemen,too,are facing departmental inquiries for violating traffic rules,again after people uploaded photographs showing these violations. Many of these photos have been clicked on mobile phones,which usually come equipped with a camera these days.”The maximum violations posted are of vehicles stopping on zebra crossings,followed by people using mobile while driving,” said Inspector Jaswinder Singh,in charge of the page.

Over 3,000 Facebook users have already declared they “like” the traffic police’s Facebook page. About outstation vehicles involved in traffic violations,traffic police officials say they don’t have an integrated database for outstation vehicles and don’t challan them. “Even if we challan the owner of an outstation vehicle and write to other states for the owner’s details,we rarely get a response,” said a senior official.

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The traffic police have issued an advisory not to post morphed pictures that could lead to legal action. “So far we have not found any morphed picture,” said Inspector Singh.

“There have been instances where pictures are not clear,or the number plate is not visible,” said DSP (Traffic) Vijay Kumar. “Traffic police officials have been assuring Net users that their complaints will be looked into within 48 hours. But if there is any complaint that needs urgent attention,they can immediately call the duty officer.”