murali772 - 21 August, 2010 | Traffic | Bangalore | Media Reports | Transportation | Enforcement | governance

A week from now, a woman police officer will be manning Bangalore City  west division traffic, with 21 traffic police stations and four sub-divisions under her purview. They include Upparpet, Malleswaram, Rajajinagar, Basavanagudi, Banashankari, Jayanagar, Hebbal and international airport -- areas which need a tough hand.

On her new posting as DCP traffic (Bangalore West), IPS officer Sonia Narang, currently serving as Belgaum SP, promises to bring in traffic discipline. As Davanagere district SP, she made news when excise minister M P Renukacharya -- then BJP MLA from Honnali -- had alleged that she had slapped and assaulted him. When the boundary dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra was raging, she ensured that the special session of legislature in January 2009 passed off peacefully.

Excerpts from the interview by the reporter:

Q: From district (Belgaum) to traffic:

A: Managing traffic is an entirely different ball game. It has a different perspective and is always challenging. Awareness can be brought out by those in the traffic administration.

Q: You have a penchant for getting into the firing line, especially with politicians...

A: I am fair to all and the law is the same for all. I go by the law. Yes, sometimes, it creates a difference of opinion. But in my experience, most politicians want senior officers to be fair. In one incident (recalling the Renukacharya incident) when prohibitory orders were imposed in Davanagere, the situation warranted me to have heated arguments with Renukacharya. I have respect for all ministers and people's representatives. But all are equal before law.

For the full report in the TOI, click here

From district policing to city traffic management is certainly a long call. Granted that IAS/ IPS officers are selected from amongst the brainiest in the country. But, however brainy a person, I expect it will take a bit of time to come to grips with the intricacies of a totaly new portfolio. And, by the time you get to understand 'pcu', it's time to move on to BWSSB to figure out 'tmcft/ hr', or to BESCOM to figure out the difference between 'kvarh' and 'kwhr'. And, if you don't have an engineering background, it's that much more difficult.

Not surprising therefore that Mr Narayana Murthy was forced to make the observation recently that “In areas where public governance is involved, we have hardly made any progress”.  And, amongst his cures is to abolish the system of generalised administrators under the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and replace it with specialists under a new ‘Indian Management Service’.

For the full report on that in DNA, click here.

Whatever, Ms Narang is known to a no-nonsense officer. The city can certainly do with the likes of her.

Muralidhar Rao

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