India, July 6 -- The deployment of nakas (temporary police checkpoints) across the Chandigarh tricity has transformed from a reassuring safety measure into a daily exercise in public frustration. Initiated as a reactive security bandobast following high-profile crimes-including the murder of a gym-goer in Sector 9, Chandigarh, on March 18; the grenade attack at the Sector 37 BJP headquarters on April 1; and the killing of a chemist shop cashier in Sector 11 on June 13-these barriers have consistently failed their primary purpose. Instead of stopping criminals, they catch ordinary office-goers in their tracks, turning routine commutes into exhausting bottlenecks. Worse, these nakas are often put up near bus stops and traffic lights, such as the borders of Chandigarh and Panchkula Industrial Area, and on Mohali's arterial Airport Road. By forcing daily traffic into restrictive, single-lane zig-zag chokepoints, they trigger gridlocks around hubs like the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER). During peak hours in monsoon, they only add to the congestion. Static checkpoints have a fundamental flaw. For instance, in the Sector 11 chemist shop cashier murder case, criminals brazenly bypassed a naka just metres from the spot, navigated through Sector 3, hid out in Kajheri village (Sector 52), and escaped the city hours later because critical information was not relayed in a timely manner. In a modern era, fixed barriers are outdated; any criminal conducting basic reconnaissance simply maps out and avoids them. Far from dynamic interceptors, these stagnant fixtures are plagued by low alertness. This complacency was laid bare during a recent surprise inspection where five police personnel across posts-including Sector 11, Sector 3, IT Park, and Sukhna Lake-were suspended after being caught distracted on their phones instead of monitoring passing vehicles. It's time tricity police forces abandon this optics-driven approach. Effective policing relies on swift, covert mobilisation, dynamic intercepts, and synchronised, real-time communication networks. The present system of static nakas does not deter criminals; it only traps law-abiding citizens intraffic jams....