They hide behind trees, flyover and foot over bridge columns and pounce upon unsuspecting motorists. Extort money from most of those caught, giving receipt to a few. No, I am not talking about pick pockets or highway robbers or petty gangsters. It is the traffic cops. I see them doing this at quite a few places in Delhi.

Cars are stolen by two types of people, I once told a cop with a pot-belly who stopped me and I insisted on a receipt for Rs.100 fine. The car thieves and the traffic cops. The traffic cops tow away the so called 'wrongly parked' cars leaving no sign whatsoever for the car owner who invariably is told of the 'lift' by either by-standers or a nearby paan shop owner. In most cases there are no 'No Parking' boards but then the cop has a target to meet and the crane (made famous by Kiran 'crane Bedi) have to earn their livelihood (car lifting outsourced by the police- a good partnership!).

What is happening to our police force? On one hand they are getting beaten (Lately in Mumbai and then in Bhubaneswar) by mobs. The cops fail to have even this basic intelligence that mobsters are collecting at the meeting armed with rods and other 'weapons', planning arson. If our police cannot have intelligence on this how can we prevent another 9/11?