Surat traffic police penalize SMC staffers on emergency duty

GNN | Mar 30, 2020, 2:20 PM IST|

• SMC employees on emergency duty fined Rs500 for not wearing helmet
• Finally DCP-Traffic Prashant Sumbe issues orders not to penalize staff on emergency duty

Gujarat News Network

Surat, March 30, 2020: Many employees of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) were in for a rude shock when the Surat Traffic Police started penalizing them for traffic rule violations on Sunday. As fate would have it, these SMC employees were on emergency duty at different locations to help tackle the dreaded coronavirus.
This strange behaviour of the Surat Traffic Police could be contained only after attention of senior police officers was drawn to this. Senior officials immediately issued orders to their juniors directing them not to harass staffers on emergency duties during the lockdown.
Amongst the SMC staffers who were penalized were a trainee clerk in the South Zone Office. He was stopped near the Batliboi junction for not wearing helmet and fined Rs500. Similarly, his colleague, a clerk, was also stopped at the same spot and fined Rs500 for not wearing helmet.
A few other SMC employees on their two-wheelers were also fined by traffic cops. "I was going to work when police stopped us and demanded fine. We were carrying emergency services identity card, but they refused to acknowledge it. Many SMC employees were penalized at the spot," said one of the employee’s who is in-charge to check quarantined persons round the-clock.
"I and many SMC employees come from outside the city. We were shocked when police started penalizing all of us even when we are involved in emergency duty and working on a Sunday,” said another employee.
Another SMC employee posted at the Central Zone, said, "I daily come from this road but found traffic police penalizing traffic offenders at this spot for the first time.
I requested them not to penalize me since I am involved in emergency duty but they refused.” The employees later informed their seniors and also alerted the SMC Workers Union.
DCP-Traffic Prashant Sumbe said, "I have instructed traffic police not to penalize government staff on emergency duty.”