‘Traffic wardens rude, misbehave’

LAHORE :The incidents of rude behaviour of wardens with citizens have been increasing day by day due to the reasons best known to CTO besides making mockery of police reforms.

The citizens could be seen complaining about the humiliating attitude of traffic wardens just for completing a number game of challans on a daily basis while there is no relief from traffic woes and miseries. The role of supervisory officers is also missing as neither the traffic flow is being maintained nor there any check on the behaviour of traffic wardens.

A similar incident happened on July 27, 2021 with a lady doctor Maida Akhtar in the limits of Moghalpura Traffic Sector. A traffic warden signaled the vehicle of Dr Maida to stop over non-fastening of the seat belt. The warden issued her a challan of Rs 500 and took two documents including CNIC and driving license from her.

She requested the warden to return CNIC as only one document could be held for the payment of challan but he allegedly started using abusive language. The traffic warden mentioned only driving license in the challan as a seized document, a copy of which is available with The News. The road users present there also asked the warden not to misbehave with the lady but he did not pay any heed to it. Later on, the warden left the place along with her CNIC and driving license. Dr Maida said that qualified wardens should be recruited so that they would behave well with citizens and help maintain flow of traffic but the situation is totally opposite to it. Talking to The News, a number of commuters appealed to the CM to take action against rude wardens who only work to complete their target of challans. A number of incidents of misbehaving have also been reported in Allama Iqbal Town, Shahdara, Ichhra, Garhi Shahu, Main Market, Mall Road, Ferozepur Road, Jail Road, Wahdat Road, Gulberg and Shadman with aged people, students and ladies.

The citizens also complained about the grouping of wardens on Zahur Elahi Road and Main Market, Mall Road and Main Boulevard Gulberg just to issue challans to citizens. They said that whenever they try to ask wardens about their violation, they start using abusive language.

DSP Traffic Abdul Ghani on the issue said that whenever they got any complaint against wardens, they took action. He added that briefing is also being given to wardens on daily basis to deal with citizens politely. He denied the allegation of challan targets adding that whoever would commit a violation, challan would be issued accordingly.