Plea for 4 more accident thanas, power to lodge

JAIPUR: Barely three months after Jaipur police decided to close all the four accident police stations, officials are now demanding four more such stations and more power to register FIRs.
The city police have sent a recommendation to the reorganisation department of the police headquarters (PHQ) seeking nod to set up one more accident police station (PS) in each of the four police zones — east, west, north and south.If their move is okayed, there will be eight accident police stations in the state.
“Given the current situation in the city, we need two police stations in each of the four zones to cover the entire city,” said deputy commissioner of police (Traffic) Rahul Prakash. Police in March had decided to shut all the four accident police stations citing “operational problems.” The officials had said that none of these PS was notified to operate as proper thanas.
“They are not empowered to register an FIR or submit a charge-sheet in the court. Instead, they have to rely on the local police station where the accident has been reported,” said an official. According to DCP traffic, this problem is likely to be resolved. “We have requested PHQ to grant powers to accident police stations so that they could file FIRs,” Prakash said. Initially established as an auxiliary investigation unit to take burden off local police stations.
Police said the new plan would also resolve the problem of coordination. “For instance, if an accident has taken place in Gandhi Nagar, first the Gandhi Nagar police station will register the FIR. The FIR will then be handed over to the accident police station (east). The accident police station will then investigate the matter and the chargesheet will be submitted by Gandhi Nagar police station. This often leads to problems. However, if our request to PHQ gets a nod, accident police stations will be independent,” an official told TOI.