Racing buses and the risk they pose on the streets of Calcutta were the focus of police commissioner Anuj Sharma’s first interaction with traffic police officers on Saturday.

Sharma, a 1991-batch IPS officer, took charge as the commissioner on Tuesday.

The top cop underlined the need for officers to be stringent in handling rogue buses.

“We were asked to lay emphasis on cases relating to Section 184 (of the Motor Vehicles Act that deals with dangerous driving), specially for buses. Sir (the commissioner) asked us to find ways to control rash and negligent driving by bus drivers,” an officer present at the meeting said.

Speeding buses overtaking each other and picking up and dropping off passengers in the middle of the road pose the greatest danger to other vehicles and pedestrians and often result in fatalities, police sources said.

Some officers blamed the commission system followed by private bus operators for the tendency to speed and overtake.

As for government buses, the challans are sent to the transport corporation that owns the errant vehicle. Sources said government buses enjoy a “natural immunity” as the police hardly prosecute them.

Sharma also sought information on registered slow-moving vehicles in the city such as cycles, vans and rickshaws and operational CCTVs.

Over 540 CCTVs are installed at major intersections in the city and 300 of them can be monitored from the Lalbazar control room.