Drive by rules; Earn cops reward

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At least some of you who were booked by the police for violating traffic rules might have cursed them for snatching your hard-earned money in the name of penalty. Now, what if the police, in fact,  pay you money?  Don’t jump to any conclusion. The police are not planning to return the money they collected as penalty. Instead, they are only intending to reward disciplined motorists with a small cash award. The move is the latest initiative from the anvil of the City Police in a desperate bid to promote safe road practices among motorists in the city. The City Police authorities devised the new initiative after noticing that there was no visible decline in the number of road accidents even after bringing the city roads under 24-hour camera surveillance. The new initiative will be launched in October during the inauguration of ‘Subhayatra’, a new traffic awareness campaign of the City Police. A committee will be constituted, comprising senior officials of the police, Road Safety Authority and Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation, to decide the winners of the reward from the inputs provided by the duty officers who come across motorists on a daily basis.  ‘’Besides discipline, the overall attitude of the motorists in cooperating with other motorists on the  road will also be an important criteria that will earn the motorists the reward,’’ says City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham. This would help promote a better road culture among the people. The Traffic Police officers, who excel in their duty, will also be rewarded handsomely, he added.  He also said that the City Police were already holding talks with a nationalised bank here to aid them in the venture.  Apart from this, a new drama on traffic awareness produced by the police will also start its campaign during the inauguration of Subhayatra.