Plea for committee to monitor traffic signals

CHENNAI: A writ plea has been filed in the Madras High Court to constitute a technical committee to scrutinize, approve, supervise and monitor the installation and maintenance of traffic signals in the city. The first bench comprising Chief Justice MY Eqbal and Justice Aruna Jagedeesan, before which the petition from N Sahur Hameed of T Nagar, recipient of Citizen for Safety Road certificate, came up for hearing on Friday, ordered notice to the authorities concerned returnable in three weeks.Petitioner’s counsel PT Perumal contended that the traffic signal system in Chennai was in a very bad state. The traffic policemen were “case-oriented and not traffic-oriented”. Instead of regulating the traffic, the cops were interested only in registering as many cases as possible and thereby creating chaos. At many important junctions in arterial roads, the traffic signals were not working at all. In some junctions, all the three - red, yellow and green - lights were burning, resulting in confusion. Many signal posts were not visible to the motorists as they were hindered by branches of trees or hoardings. Hence, the writ plea to constitute a technical committee, consisting of traffic experts, social workers and prominent members of the society, to revamp the entire signal system and to monitor them was filed, Perumal said.