Misuse of Press, police stickers rampant

AMRITSAR: The traffic wing of the city police today launched a crackdown on the offenders using Press and police stickers in an unauthorised way

Updated At : 06:23 AM Jan 31, 2015 IST

<p>A traffic policeman peels off a Press sticker pasted in an unauthorised manner on a car</p>

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 30

The traffic wing of the city police today launched a crackdown on the offenders using Press and police stickers in an unauthorised way.

Generally, the police do not check vehicles with stickers of the Press and the police. The misuse of these stickers has become rampant. A number of people has pasted these stickers unauthorisedly to avoid police action.

Many people are found using vehicles, including SUVs, with the Press sticker pasted on its front or rear glasses. During a drive conducted at the busy Bhandari Bridge, which connects the old walled city with the rest, the police removed the Press and the police stickers from the cars. The persons driving these vehicles could not produce any authority to use these stickers. In some cases, even relatives of policemen were using the police stickers on their cars. They failed to explain the reasons to traffic policemen, who were headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police (traffic) Kanwaldeep Kaur.

Kaur said the drive would continue and those found involved in plying vehicles with these stickers unauthorisedly would be taken to task.

During the drive, the traffic policemen challaned around 16 persons with Press stickers on their vehicles and 19 persons with police stickers. Besides 40 persons were challaned for speeding on the elevated road. The police challaned two persons each for pasting VIP and anti-corruption wing stickers and using black films on their vehicles.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (traffic) Dhruman Nimbale said the Press stickers were issued to journalists, so that they could access trouble-torn and even those areas, which were barred to common public. However, a number of persons were found using these stickers in an unlawful manner and this practice should be dealt with with an iron hand.

“During the past few drives, we found unfamiliar faces, so far as the media circle was concerned, riding two-wheelers, driving cars and even SUVs, which left the traffic cops puzzled. When we sought the documents regarding their identity, they failed to produce these. Moreover, we also got numerous oral complaints from journalists about the rampant misuse of these stickers,” said Nimbale, adding that this drive would be held regularly to check violations.