The Karnataka government on Monday, November 14, placed an officer of the rank of Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP) in charge of Bengaluru’s traffic management. MA Saleem, a veteran police officer who previously oversaw traffic in Bengaluru, was appointed as Special Commissioner (Traffic). The post of Joint Commissioner Police (Traffic) has been upgraded to Special Commissioner (Traffic), in an effort to prioritise traffic management in Bengaluru.
MA Saleem is renowned for being one of the few policemen who is passionate about traffic management and has worked in various roles to control traffic in Bengaluru for one of the longest periods of time. In 2010, he received a PhD in traffic management from Bangalore University, on "Traffic management in Metropolitan Cities: A Framework to provide sustainable strategies to overcome Traffic congestion and ensure greater safety on road." He overhauled and simplified traffic management during the period when he was in charge of the city's traffic, culminating in the city's first adoption of technology with the B-TRAC project under MN Reddi. After conducting a thorough investigation across the city, Saleem, also known as "one way Saleem," as he introduced one way on 122 important routes and other junction renovation programmes, optimised traffic flow without causing congestion.
Saleem’s appointment comes in response to several complaints from industrialists and commuters about the state of traffic in the city. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who is also in charge of Bengaluru Development, had said that reducing traffic congestion in the city was his government’s top priority.
Welcoming the government’s move to appoint Saleem as the new traffic chief, many activists and citizens took to Twitter to share their long list of expectations from him. One user wrote, “Please prioritise people over :Vehicles,VIP “movements”, Political rallies,” while another wrote, “Congratulations #MASaleem! Wrong-side driving, driving in wrong direction on one-ways are big safety issues and need to be taken up seriously to avoid accidents + wrong-helmet/ no helmet and multiple-pillion riding.”
Please enforce parking policy strictly
— Srinivas Alavilli (@srinualavilli) November 15, 2022
Paid parking is working well. Expand to all localities please.
Bring back towing trucks but with better process and less aggression
Shops that do not use basement for parking need to urgently hear from you.
Congratulations #MASaleem! Wrong-side driving, driving in wrong direction on one-ways are big safety issues and need to be taken up seriously to avoid accidents + wrong-helmet/ no helmet and multiple-pillion riding. (1/2)
— Gowrish Prabhu (@GowrishPrabhu) November 15, 2022
Mr Ma Saleem sir expertise in traffic mgmt . We had seen him performing duty physically himself on busy JN during peak hours.. especially near coffee board infantry road
— Harpreet Sarai (@sourcezy) November 15, 2022
Welcome move by the govt. Hopefully we can breathe easy with MA Saleem coming back
— Rohith Simha (@rohith_simha) November 14, 2022
Saleem will now replace Joint Commissioner Ravikanthe Gowda, an officer with the rank of Deputy-Inspector General of Police. Gowda worked under Police Commissioner Pratap Reddy, who is also an ADGP rank officer. Saleem will be assisted by the new Joint Commissioner MN Anucheth, a 2009-batch IPS officer. Among other significant transfers, the government also posted IPS SD Sharanappa as the Joint Commissioner (Crime), IPS Umesh Kumar as ADGP (Administration) in the police headquarters, IPS Chandragupta as Deputy Inspector General of Police (Western range), and IPS B Ramesh as Superintendent of Police in the Crime Investigation Department (CID).