Month of March Nearing to The End

Till this post goes live there will be new financial calender may started in government offices. However before diving into the core topic, let me have reality bites on title of the post. The below statements often you will heard in month of March every year about traffic cops in India.

Pan-Tapariwal at Corner of the Signal: Yeh to aaj kaam pe jaldi aayega hi, March endinig aa gaya na (He come to duties early today as Month of March nearing to the end)

A friend with you on your bike: Yeh to har ek ko rukayega hi, March ending aa gaya na re (He will stop everyone as Month of March nearing to the end)

Co-traveler at traffic signal: I carry helmet as well, March ending aa gaya na. See (And point his chin to traffic cop at Signal)

This is the general view on Indian Cops when it comes to see traffic cops at Signal in Month of March. However I do not have second thought on view posted above of Panwala, my friend or any Indian. We used to carry all document and drive by following all traffic rules. Despite that we take special care to stay away from traffic cops as we are aware about chai-pani (Bribery) culture in India. However there are exception to above fundamental of Rules and Chai-Pani culture in Traffic department which I observed when I was waiting for office cab at traffic signal in recent days.

It was another working day (in month of March). I crossed the signal at Kothrud Depot and was waiting for office cab. The traffic signal indicating stop sign on both the side of Paud Road to help the pedestrian like me to cross the road. Fairly I crossed road and saw traffic police at another end. I wondered that how he appearing so early today and sudden thought came up that 'March ending hai'. I crossed the road and waiting on company cab at footpath. Till that time signal was showing red sign which will definitely frustrate working person waiting at main road to turn signal green. I saw one of the lady bike rider jump off the signal even signal indicating red sign.

I saw traffic cop went to middle of the road and indicate that lady to stop her bike and brought her to side of the road which is almost near to me where I was waiting on footpath. Traffic cop explained patiently that when signal is red, you should stop, all other waiting on signal are not stupid. Lady replied 'Sorry, please allow once, let me go'. Traffic police reply really impressed me. He said I will let you go only if you go back to the signal and wait till signal to turn green. Still she was saying 'Sorry, please allow once, let me go'. 

Finally, traffic cop asked for her driving license. I saw it was foldable license handed over to him that means it was duplicate copy of license which is not allow (Driving license in smart card form can not be fold). Per law, you should display original license when asked by traffic cop. At first glance, I thought cop will start bargaining on fine to be paid by lady for not having license and jumping off the signal. However he puzzled me when he asked lady for below options to get back her licence.

1. She can pay fine by going to traffic department and take her license OR
2. She can go back to the signal, wait signal to turn red and come to carry her driving license.

Of course, lady choose second option to go back to the signal and start kicking off the bike. Again traffic cop approached her and asked her to go back to the signal without driving as she was trying to drive in opposite direction. I saw the lady was fuming, however the only option she was trying to go back to the signal by pushing her bike. Till she reach there, signal went red again as traffic signal want to punish her too. She did wait till signal turned green and came back to the cop to claim her driving license. As promised traffic cop relieved her by returning her driving license.

This is the perfect example where I saw the traffic police was neither trying to achieve financial target as it was month of March nor taking bribe. Even he never tried to harass a lady for duplicate license. He was on mission to teach traffic rules. Salute!