Uttar Pradesh has only 3,656 traffic cops for 20 crore people

NEW DELHI: With around 20 crore people, Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in the country. It also has the highest number of registered vehicles, but it only has 3,656 policemen to deal with traffic management. It's not much different in other states since the focus of police departments is on “body-related crime" rather than violation of traffic norms, which claim more lives.

Admitting that the number of traffic policemen was way too less for UP's size, additional director general (traffic) Anil Agrawal said it was much lower than what big cities like Delhi or Mumbai have today .“We have started the process to increase this strength to 16,000. You need to have adequate manpower to meet the requirement," he added. Many states including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana Karnataka, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Punjab have submitted details of the number of traffic police men to a Supreme Court-appointed committee on road safety.

“Most traffic policemen are deployed in the main cities and particularly to manage VIP routes. So, you hardly find traffic policemen in small cities or towns and other roads. Lack of policemen and no fear of getting caught encourage traffic violators," said a road transport ministry official.

Sources said the SC-appointed panel has asked the home ministry to set norms for sanction and deployment of traffic policemen in states either proportionate to population or to the number of registered vehicles. TOI has learnt that the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) has recommended a formula for deployment of traffic policemen. This will be placed before the SC panel so that the proposal can be pursued.