New Delhi: When human devices fail, why not seek spiritual direction?
Delhi Police, gearing up to meet the maddening traffic challenges during the wedding season, is seeking traffic and crowd management tips from the Radha Soami sect, which organises three huge congregations here every year with minimal disruption for the public.
In a letter to owners of country villas — euphemistically called farm houses — in the city, the preferred venue for marriages, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi has asked them to closely monitor how the Radha Soami deras (ashrams) manage traffic whenever they host a religious function that is attended by hundreds of followers, sources said.
“The deras deploy numerous volunteers all around the premises and on the main roads whenever they host a function and you hardly ever witness a traffic jam. It’s remarkable,” a police officer, who did not wish to be named, said. “The volunteers ensure that the cars are parked at the right spot and that no one strays into the opposite lane while waiting,” the officer added.
The owners have also been asked to give inputs on additional measures that the police can take to better manage the traffic around the marriage venues.
The police station head of a south Delhi neighbourhood that has around 100 country villas said that during the peak wedding season “not less than 15,000 cars can be seen parked all around the area and spilling on to main roads as well”.
Some owners of country villas acknowledged the headache this causes but expressed their inability to follow the police’s suggestions. Arguing that “adequate” security guards are deployed during functions, the owners said the proposition of hiring hundreds of people just to manage traffic was “not financially viable”.
IANS
