Cops skewered for Jai Shree Ram message at traffic signal in Chennai
Police sources said that the traffic sub-inspector, Palani had taken the transperson in a police vehicle and made her break pumpkins on the road after following rituals at more than one spot.
CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Traffic Police was at the receiving end of public ire and ridicule after a traffic signal in Tirumangalam displayed “Jai Shree Ram”, the religious chant that is increasingly associated with the proponents of Hindutva.
The matter came to light after a motorist recorded a video and shared it on social media, which attracted swift condemnation. The variable message service (VMS) board was deactivated and the traffic police clarified that it was a private company that owned the board to display advertisements and awareness messages. “For the VMS boards and LED scroll boards owned by/associated with GCTP, we have a fool-proof system of vetting messages and advertisements,” GCTP clarified in a tweet.
However, despite the effort to distance itself, sources within the police pointed out that private parties to require consent from the department to erect such VMS boards. “The board is there for more than two years now. We have summoned the vendor seeking an explanation. The vendor, too, has expressed innocence as of now as to how a religious message was displayed. Our instruction is to use it only to send out traffic awareness messages,” a traffic official in Anna Nagar range told DT Next.
In the first week of June, a traffic policeman was withdrawn from duty after he engaged a transgender person to break pumpkins on Maduravoyal - Vanagaram road to ‘ward off evil omen’ and reduce road accidents after a recent spate of accidents on the road. Police sources said that the traffic sub-inspector, Palani had taken the transperson in a police vehicle and made her break pumpkins on the road after following rituals at more than one spot.
Another move that irked the public was the announcement that speed radar guns would be installed at 30 locations to automatically issue challans if motorists exceeded 40 km/hr speed during the day and 50 km/hr during the night. The police had to backtrack the very next day, claiming that the speed radar guns would be used only to study traffic.
