Safety officers failed to bring changes on roads, say ex-volunteers

GURUGRAM: Most of former road safety officers (RSOs) claimed that they had failed to discipline city commuters or serve any purpose — a perception that often turns out to be the main reason for traffic

volunteers

to get disillusioned with the job.

“Till the time we were out there monitoring the roads, everything ran smoothly. But the moment we left, people started jumping signals, skipping lanes or violating one or the other rule. So, basically, we have failed to bring about any change. This discourages me,” said Madhu Berry, mother of two, who has stopped working actively as an

RSO

.

In fact, Madhu is one of the 145 registered RSOs who seem to have lost motivation to work as volunteers. As TOI reported on Wednesday, only 30 out of the 175 registered RSOs are active on city roads now.

Aparnaa Laxmi Singh, another RSO who is no more active, said, “Madhu and I were also awarded by the Gurgaon police for the voluntary work we did. But I have stopped standing on roads because as an RSO, I had no authority to take rogue drivers to task. Moreover, the ID cards issued to RSOs have a validity of only six months. When we had gone to the Gurgaon police to renew our ID cards, they said ‘RSO is a voluntary job and thus don’t need any ID card’. Without an ID card, we don’t have any sanctity to be on the roads.”

Another former RSO

Arnab

Bhattacharya alleged there were some RSOs who took away the credits for all good work done by the volunteers.

Vivek Bimbrahw

, who worked as an RSO from 2014 to16, echoed Arnab. “The present RSOs hobnob with senior cops for their personal benefits.”

ACP (traffic) Heera Singh, who looks after RSO campaign, said, “Permanent ID cards cannot be issued to RSOs. The present RSOs are contributing in their own capacity to ease

traffic

in the city. Whatever issues that some of them are facing, I feel can be resolved.”