AP traffic cops to get fine' support

Visakhapatnam: After years of delay in taking necessary decision, the Andhra Pradesh state government has given nod to sanction a special budget in the form of a 40 per cent cut from amount collected by the traffic police as fines from violators. The sanctioned amount will be used to procure the latest equipment and facilities for better traffic management in major cities like Vizag and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.

Though traffic police is one of the highest revenue-generating wings of the Police Department in the state, cops in the department have been struggling to see some technical development in its working. The department has to depend on support of sponsors to undertake road safety projects due to lack of funds from the government. In cities like, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, the state governments have been providing separate budget allocation for traffic department.

The AP government agreed to allocate funds to traffic police wing in major cities and towns to make the roads safer. Sources in police said that cops in the state are ill-equipped to lift the wrong parking vehicles on the roads. Most of the breath analysers were not functioning. DGP of Andhra Prad-esh Nanduri Sambasiva Rao said the state government has considered the police department’s request to allocate special fund for traffic management. The police in major cities and towns in the state would get at least 40 per cent of the collected traffic fines amount to buy latest infrastructure for better traffic management, he added.

Traffic police wing req-uires more infrastructure than man power for the better traffic management. The traffic police in almost all the regions in the state are ill-equipped in terms of procuring gadgets. Vizag traffic police wing usually collects '10 crore in a year through traffic fines. If we get 40 per cent of the collected amount, we will be able to spend huge amount for road safety and to mitigate the road accidents said ADCP (Traffic) K. Mahendra Patrudu.