The traffic police in Kathmandu
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Answer:
1. In six months, road users in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, have learned to cringe at using
the car horn unnecessarily. "I feel embarrassed now when I occasionally blow the horn" said
Rajaram Dangal, a hotel manager. "I feel like people are staring at me from all around." Clearly,
the traffic police's slogan of "Let's be civilised, let's not use the horn" is working.
2. Making Dangal give up his instinctive action at the wheel has not been easy. Like in most
old South Asian cities, horns seem a matter of life and death in Kathmandu, with its narrow,
congested, pot holed roads. Pedestrians and animals-cross the roads at will. There are no traffic
lights and road dividers. And yet today, you only hear a few stray beeps on the street. Even these
sound tentative and have none of the aggressive, let-me-through tone that you find in, say, Delhi.
3 The induction of a no-nonsense officer to head the traffic police, a ban on horns, strict
vigilance, a fine of ? 500 (2315 in Indian currency) and threat of public ignominy have brought
a degree of silence on the noisy streets. Noise pollution had reached unhealthy highs in the
Nepalese capital.
4. After clamping down on honking, 15,500 people have been hauled up. Sarbendra Khanal,
traffic police chief, said this was achieved despite the cops having no mechanical device to
pinpoint the horn sound.
5. And yet, the quietude of sorts is holding out." "It's early days still, but I feel mindsets are
changing," Khanal was optimistic. The government's intent to change the street ambience
was enunciated in no less than Khanal's selection to head the traffic police soon after the
announcement of the ban. What did DIG Khanal bring to the table? He has little traffic experience.
Rather, the officer has a reputation as an "encounter specialist", having crushed 109 criminal
outfits in the Terai.