Bengaluru, Jun 27 (IANS): Karnataka Director General and Inspector General of Police Praveen Sood directed the traffic police in Bengaluru on Monday not to stop vehicle riders and drivers unless there is a traffic offence. The move has been appreciated by the vehicle riders who complained of harassment by traffic police on the pretext of document verification.

Srivatsava Vajapeyam, a resident of Bengaluru, had written to Praveen Sood that when he was ACP traffic, he had banned stopping vehicles for checking documents. "You could be stopped only for an offence.

"Now with Praveen Sood as DGP, stopping vehicles is a daily phenomenon," Srivatsava had written on June 26.

Replying to this, Praveen Sood stated on Monday that "Yes I stand by it and reiterate again. No vehicle shall be stopped only for checking documents unless it has committed a traffic violation visible to the naked eye. Only exception is drunken driving. Have instructed the Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru City and Joint Commissioner of Traffic for implementation immediately."

The tweet by Praveen Sood has come following a meeting on traffic management in Bengaluru city which is becoming a challenge chaired by the Additional Chief Secretary Rajneesh Goyal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit to Bengaluru spoke about easing the traffic flow and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has also underlined that his government would strive to resolve the traffic woes in Bengaluru.

Bengaluru crossed the 10 million mark in January, 2021 in the number of vehicles. 6.4 million are two wheelers, 2.3 million are private cars. The city added 6,00,000 vehicles every year since 2018. In 2020-21, 1.1 million vehicles were added despite the Covid pandemic, according to official statistics.