Better late than never

With reference to the Chinese Whispers item titled “Band-aid for traffic mess” (December 15), it was nice to learn that the Karnataka government seems to have finally woken up to the traffic woes of commuters in Bengaluru, a city which has one of the highest vehicle densities in India. However, its reported action plan to experiment with no private vehicles one day a month starting February 2018 could be akin to serving some half-baked food to one who may be hungry for weeks. No wonder then that such a one-off idea of the state government to resolve the city’s long-pending problem of frequent traffic jams has been termed as a “band-aid solution” by some harried residents.

One wishes the government had risen to the occasion by coming out with some more effective and well-meaning proposal/s to deal with the extant worrisome situation instead of quite inappropriately targeting only the private vehicles, that too on a specified day alone. But why “exclude” the government vehicles for this noble cause? Let all the residents make the best use of the city’s public transport/Metro trains at least for four days a month. The government should take the lead by lending a helping hand and keeping all its official vehicles off the roads on such days. As we know, “where there is a will, there is always a way”, and “charity should begin at home”.

Vinayak G Bengaluru

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