Rain or shine: For Dimapur’s traffic force, work is work

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Dec. 22 (EMN): Arrival of the winter months here in Dimapur not only means Christmas and festivities but also holidays, for most of the people.

For a rare few, there are exceptions; and one of such are the traffic personnel. In fact, for them the festive season means additional hours of work in the streets.

While speaking to Eastern Mirror, Toshi Aier, an ABSI in the Dimapur traffic police force, said that vehicular movement increases in Dimapur during festive season as people from all districts of Nagaland come to the commercial hub to shop. “It gets very tiring but we have to do our job.”

According to him, the workload increases with the advent of the festive session. ‘Traffic job is not that easy, summer or winter we have to stand and take care of the traffic; we all know the road condition, we have to take care of our health as well,’ he said.

The only thing lacking, he said, was cooperation from citizens. ‘We do not get holiday during this time of the year, except for emergency situations; and while people are going around with their families having a good time, we have to do extra hours of work and control the traffic,’ he said.

Another traffic personnel, stationed at Holy Cross junction, said that most problems were created by Naga drivers, especially when it concerns parking.

According to him, if someone parks his/her car in a ‘no parking zone’, instead of objecting to it, most Nagas would rather follow suit; thereby, creating a chain of traffic snarls.

‘The main reason for traffic jam is that people do not follow traffic rules, and especially during festive season, there are more vehicles and to control the traffic congestion, it is very difficult,’ he said.

Asked about holidays, he replied that the traffic personnel do not get leave from December till the first week of January as the festive season necessitates stringer traffic regulation.