Infrastructure idles as traffic goes haywire

KOCHI: The much-hyped initiatives like oxygen parlour, vibrator, infrastructure for Janamaithri policing are nowhere on the scene now. Though the police had installed cameras at traffic junctions, traffic laws are being flouted in front of the cameras. Former City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham had initiated steps to set up a mobile oxygen parlour and an audio-visual traffic lab of the traffic police in 2007. The policemen who brave automobile exhaust during their duty time were able to breathe fresh air for some time with the help of the oxygen parlour. The mobile unit had the facility to provide first-aid in cases of emergencies. It also had a complaint cell and the facility for spot-fining of petty cases. But as time passed both the facilities became non-functional. Similarly a vibrator was brought in to relieve policemen from the muscle problems occurring owing to long hours of duty time but it has also become non-operational.  The website of the Kochi city police is also in a weird situation. Apart from some data, nothing has been updated for the past one year on the website.  “Modern facilities were initiated to keep the police force and its service updated to modern standards. But unfortunately, these facilities died midway owing to lack of funds. It is a common practice that when an equipment gets damaged it takes about a year to get it rectified. Even the activities of the Janamaithri police could not be taken up because of the shortage of infrastructure,” police sources said.In a major development, the traffic police department had installed hidden cameras at traffic junctions to catch the law-breakers. But even after setting up the facility speeding vehicles roam around the city with ease. “The services of the oxygen parlour were stopped owing to a technical snag in the machine. We are looking forward to rectifying the machine soon. The hidden cameras had been less active for several months but we will make them more active in the coming days. We have started issuing notice to people who break traffic laws,” Assistant Police Commissioner (Traffic) V M Muhammad Rafique said.