KARACHI: Chairman Businessmen Group (BMG) & Former President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Siraj Kassam Teli has said that around 60 percent of the traffic jams being suffered on the streets of Karachi, particularly after recent rains, are caused by the public themselves because of fearless violation of traffic rules, absence of civic sense and totally senseless and amateurish driving which is mainly due to lack of awareness and proper training about the basic traffic rules.
In a statement issued, Siraj Teli said that Provincial and Local governments can only be blamed for the remaining 40 percent which includes failure to deal with encroachments, negligence to city’s dilapidated sewerage network, timely unclog rainwater and other nullahs and unavailability of traffic police officers and other municipal staff at important spots to deal with different situations emerging during and after the torrential rains.
He said that it is mainly the public which has to be blamed for the severe traffic jams as whenever a commuter sees some standstill rainwater on any road or underpass, he or she fearlessly violates the one-way traffic rule, which encourages dozens of others to do the same. Although these commuters regularly use these roads every day and are well aware that no sump is present on that particular road yet they prefer to immediately make a U-turn and violate one-way traffic rule to save their vehicles. Consequently, severe traffic jams occur at some of the busiest roads where people remain stuck up for hours and they can easily been seen blaming the government for traffic mess without realizing their own mistakes.
Absenteeism of traffic police officers at important locations and unavailability of municipal staff to promptly clear the standstill water from roads is the second major reason behind traffic jams being suffered by the citizens but it is the public themselves who are initially responsible for the traffic mess, he said, adding that 60 percent of the traffic related problems can be resolved by initiating across-the-board Public Awareness Campaigns.
He urged the authorities in Sindh government, Traffic Police Department and the media to act responsibly by immediately initiating ‘Public Awareness Campaigns’ about traffic rules and the Karachi Chamber, being a socially responsible institution, will also be doing the same with immediate effect by utilizing all available resources for raising awareness about traffic rules amongst the masses.
Chairman BMG further stated that in the present circumstances, anyone can fearlessly drive on the streets of Karachi without a valid driving license whereas acquiring a driving license without any training or test is also not an uphill task due to corruption and some sheer flaws in the system which have to be strictly addressed in order to improve the traffic flow situation.
“We have been demanding from time to time that no one should be allowed to drive on the roads at any cost without a valid driving license which should only be issued after proper training only to those individuals who qualify the relevant theoretical and practical tests but unfortunately, the concerned authorities have paid zero attention to this demand and the consequences are in front of us every day while driving on the streets of Karachi where traffic flow situation continues to worsen day by day”, he added.
Siraj Teli further underscored the need to completely overhaul the entire traffic policing system in order to improve traffic flow and this has to be done from the grass root level. The first step in the right direction will be to immediately disallow people from driving without a license, followed by a massive Public Awareness Campaigns at all levels and proper training not only to the public but also to traffic police officers so that they could become capable enough to efficiently control traffic and strictly deal with traffic rules’ violators.
He also stressed the need to substantially raise the existing penalties for traffic rules violators which, if done, would trigger some kind of fear amongst the masses. Chairman BMG hoped that the decision makers at the provincial and local governments would pay attention to this serious issue and devise effective strategies to control traffic, besides improving the dilapidated infrastructure of Karachi in order to provide some relief to the perturbed citizens who continue to suffer for hours and even get looted on the streets during traffic jams.
