Every law-abiding citizen in the country has that fire in them to do a positive thing for the society. But all that jazba usually goes down the drain when they’ve to do it for free. Because paise mil jaate toh kaun thoda bahut traffic policing nahi kar leta, hai na?
Now, while other states in India can still use that excuse, the people of Goa cannot. That’s because their police have introduced a new scheme where everybody can be a traffic police.
The Goa Traffic Police recently put up a post on their Facebook page to tell people that they can earn money by catching traffic offenders. It’s pretty neat to be honest.
So, if you catch someone driving on the wrong side, parking on the footpath, triple riding, etc., all you’ve to do is take a photo of them doing so. And if you witness someone jumping a red light, driving dangerously or using their mobile while driving, you’ve to take a video and submit it on the Sentinel app on Playstore. Once you’ve acquired 100 points, you will get a Rs. 1000 cash prize.
Now, you’re technically not a Traffic Police. The technical term that the police have prescribed is ‘Traffic Sentinel’ (which sounds really bad-ass). And in order to be one, you’ve to abide by a few rules.
According to the manifesto, you can become a Traffic Sentinel by registering through the app. Once it’s approved, you can start reporting. However, if a picture or video of a reported violation is unclear or the vehicle number is obscure, then that report will be discarded. In addition to that, if any violator challenges the Traffic Sentinel in question, they have to appear at the Hon’ble Court and testify.
So Goa, are you up for this? And do you think this process of monitoring the traffic should be applied all over India? Let me know in the comments.