YANGON DIVISION – According to the local residents in Yangon, the traffic wardens tend to wait for the truck drivers to demand fines at checkpoints rather than direct the vehicle movements and do the road policing.
It is said that the traffic police in Yangon took charge of the road policing at traffic lights and the points where the traffic jam occurred before the coup, but the traffic police booths have had to be closed after to avoid the ambushes by the revolutionary guerrilla forces.
A local said that the traffic cops go all around the lorry checkpoints by patrol cars or police motorcycles to demand the fines.
“They are usually seen in groups in Bayin Naung Street, Hlaing RiverStreet and Shwe Pyi Thar Industrial Zones. As soon as the police see the lorries passing by, they are asked to stop to find a reason to pay fines. If they don’t see the lorries come, they turn their attention towards the taxi drivers,” said the local.
After the coup, the traffic police booths have become replaced by the SAC-controlled bunkers. The traffic police are assigned to patrol the different townships, so they could misuse this authority to force the drivers to pay fines.
A salt factory truck driver complained, “After loading up the goods, we have to make sure that we have everything including driver’s license, wheel tax slips to show the police. If we forget one of those and are stopped by the police, we have to pay them at least 5000 kyats. In that situation, we cannot add this to the list of our costs to report this to the factory owner. The cost is in no way reimbursed. Even though we bring every necessary document along with us, we still have to pay 1000 kyats when the traffic cops wave us to stop.”
Not only the male traffic cops but the female traffic cops are reportedly demanding the truck drivers to pay the fines in public.