Government bodies make you run from pillar to post to get your job done, even on the internet.
A hapless commuter, who’d contacted both Gurgaon and Delhi Traffic Police because he was stuck in a traffic jam on the Delhi-Haryana border, ended up being caught between the crossfire between the two departments. Birender Kumar Singh yesterday tweeted that he’d been stuck at Ambience Mall for an hour, and tagged both the Gurgaon and Delhi police asking for help.
@gurgaonpolice @dtptraffic stuck for last one hour at NH 48 in front of ambience mall. Please help
— Birender Kumar Singh (@singhbk) September 22, 2017
Now Ambience Mall is situated right at the Delhi-Haryana border. While its address says it’s in Gurgaon, Google Maps seems to show it’s in Delhi’s territory.
Delhi Police, though, promptly washed its hands off the matter, implying the jam was the fault of the Gurgaon Police. It tagged the Gurgaon Police handle and asked them to handle the issue. “Thanks, the matter is out of Delhi Police Jurisdiction so your complaint is being forwarded to Gurgaon Police for taking necessary action,” it said.
Thanks, matter is out of Delhi Police jurisdiction so your complaint is being forwarded to @gurgaonpolice for taking necessary action.
— Delhi Traffic Police (@dtptraffic) September 22, 2017
Gurgaon Police, though, was having none of it. Within three minutes of the Delhi Police tweet, it came up with this zinger.
@dtptraffic Plz clear your traffic over rajokri flyover. This is resulting in serious traffic congestion in Gurugram.
— Gurugram Police (@gurgaonpolice) September 22, 2017
“Please clear your traffic over Rajokri flyover,”the Gurgaon Police told the Delhi Police. Rajorki Flyover lies squarely within Delhi, some 8 kilometers off the border. The Gurgaon Police said the jam there was spilling over to their city. “This is resulting in serious traffic congestion in Gururam.”
Birender Singh then went back to the Delhi Police, tweeting that the jam was indeed till the T3 turn, which is beyond the Rajorki flyover.
The traffic jam is till turn for T3 that’s why I included delhi police in tweet
— Birender Kumar Singh (@singhbk) September 22, 2017
At this point, Delhi Police said it had informed its traffic staff, and soon Singh tweeted that traffic was moving again.
People, though, didn’t seem happy with Delhi Police’s initial refusal to intervene.
@dtptraffic how u know his location & decide on jurisdiction from your twitter account? This NH8 mess occurs every single day. @LtGovDelhi
— CA (@ca_ind) September 22, 2017
The old blame game of Delhi police, either the offence can be prosecuted on the spot, or out of jurisdiction or staff has been informed!!!
— Navneet (@nav_neet) September 22, 2017
And while modern Police Departments are now on Twitter, and proactively respond to citizens’ complaints, they’ll find it hard to shake off old government stereotypes of bureaucracy and passing the buck. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.