Goa legislators oppose traffic sentinel scheme

Goa MLAs on Tuesday opposed the "controversial" Traffic Sentinel scheme, which allows citizens to report traffic offenders, on floor of the Legislative Assembly.

The scheme was launched with a sole aim to create traffic sense and reduce motor vehicle accidents and fatalities.

The legislators, including Glenn Ticlo (BJP), Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco (Congress) and Churchill Alemao (NCP) demanded that the scheme be scrapped as citizens are complaining about its roll out.

The matter was raised by BJP MLA Antonio Fernandes.

In his response, Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that he would look into the functioning of the scheme.

"More than 7,000 citizens have enrolled themselves as traffic sentinels (volunteers) who are being paid for pointing out violations of the Motor Vehicle Act. Police department has paid Rs 37.81 lakh to traffic sentinels so far while Rs 29.21 lakh are yet to be paid (as cash reward)," he said.

While stake-holders in the tourism industry claim that the scheme was detrimental to the sector, local residents had complained that the "sentinels" were intruding their privacy.

The scheme was launched by Goa Traffic Police for empowering general public to participate in better management of traffic on roads.

In this initiative, any person can report traffic violation by capturing the photo/video of the defaulting vehicle and send it through Whatsapp, email of Facebook page of Goa Traffic Police.

Once a traffic sentinel accumulates 100 points he/she gets cash reward of Rs 1000.