Hit and run and Chennai's 'helpless' police?

Today's report in The Hindu gives the impression that there is little that the Chennai City Traffic Police can do to record evidence about motorists who cause accidents due to sheer arrogance.

The explanation of the Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) is on shaky ground for the following reasons:

Technology is available to record evidence on the road in the form of CCTV systems, and one such system has indeed been put up at Spencer's Junction, Anna Salai. If it is not working, the police have only themselves to blame.

The Chennai Police now have 100 more vehicles at their disposal, thanks to the largesse from Hyundai Motor (though this donation, in my view, is unacceptable and totally unethical due to conflict of interest questions). So what is the Police using these vehicles for? Note my earlier posts about fatal accidents early in the morning because no policemen are present and commercial and transport department vehicle drivers couldn't care less about traffic signals.

The Police in Chennai and elsewhere is forever trying to convince the public that it is helpless and unable to perform in a civilised manner because others are not helping it to. In my view, it should stop whining and get down to work.

Tailpiece: It is an amusing thing that the Tamil Nadu government is an absolute ignoramus when it comes to Information Technology. The Government's website puts out a news item from the New Indian Express that claims Chennai City Traffic Police to have launched a website to tackle what is officially termed "traffic chaos." There is a hyperlink in the report to this site: www.cctp.org. Click on it and you get a surprise! It goes to some domain salesman, rather than any useful page from the Police. No wonder the hit-and-run drivers are laughing at the vulgarly muscular and uncouth CCTP.