PUNE, Jan 8: Constant surge in the number of motorised vehicles and lack of discipline have worsened the traffic condition in the city, Police Commissioner K K Kashyap said today.Giving details about various offences and the general law and order situation during last year, Kashyap spoke about the constraints faced by the police in managing traffic and called for people's active participation in traffic discipline.``More accidents due to flagrant violation of traffic rules take place when there is no policeman on the road. More mishaps have taken place between 9 pm and 7 am, and in the lean period between 1 pm and 5 pm,'' he said.Last year, there were 334 fatal mishaps. A total of 329 mishaps were serious and another 1981 were minor ones. In 1997, the number of fatal mishaps were 302.The traffic police has been facing severe manpower shortage to manage the huge volume of traffic. Compared to Mumbai, Pune had greater number of motorised vehicles.Till September end, Mumbai had over eight lakh vehicles (mainly four wheelers), while Pune had over nine lakh vehicles, mostly two-wheelers and three-wheelers. However unlike in Mumbai where even the head constable had a walkie-talkie set, such facility was not available to the police in Pune.Kashyap said that the additional requirements of manpower in 1995 which have not been fulfilled yet was a staff of 519 persons, including one assistant commissioner, nine inspectors, 19 sub-inspectors, 54 head constables, 408 constables and 28 drivers. In addition, the traffic branch requires 11 cars or jeeps, 24 motorcycles, five cranes, and walkie-talkie sets for all the persons up to the rank of head constable. He said that he had pursuing the sanction of proposal by the government. The traffic branch has sent a proposal to the municipal corporation for installing additional 26 traffic signals.
