New Delhi
Two people lost their lives in two separate road accidents reported from Civil Lines and Dwarka during muted Holi celebrations in the city on Monday, even as Delhi Police claimed that fatal mishaps on the day of Holi this year had come down by nearly 78%, as compared to last year when nine such deaths were reported.
Except for the two fatalities, no more accidents were reported this year. There were 23 road accidents reported during Holi celebrations in 2020 and 28 in 2019. This effectively means that the total accident cases this year have come down by 91%, when compared to last year. The city had witnessed seven deaths because of mishaps in 2019, data showed.
Apart from road mishaps, incidents of violations of traffic rules also saw a sharp decline from the previous years, as only 3,446 fines were issued during Holi celebrations on Monday, which was almost 30% less from 2020 when 4,918 such challans were issued on the day of Holi. Of the total challans on Monday, 1,255 were for riding without helmets, 170 for triple riding, 100 for drink driving, 121 for dangerous driving while 1,800 were for other traffic violations, the data said.
Police officers attributed this decline to heavy deployment of their personnel on the streets and restrictions imposed in the city following the Delhi Disaster Management Authority’s (DDMA’s) Covid-19 guidelines that banned Holi celebrations and gatherings in public places. Owing to massive awareness campaigns through newspapers, news channels and social media, there was better compliance observed this year, officers said.
{{/usCountry}}Police officers attributed this decline to heavy deployment of their personnel on the streets and restrictions imposed in the city following the Delhi Disaster Management Authority’s (DDMA’s) Covid-19 guidelines that banned Holi celebrations and gatherings in public places. Owing to massive awareness campaigns through newspapers, news channels and social media, there was better compliance observed this year, officers said.
{{/usCountry}}As far as action taken for violations of DDMA guidelines regarding Covid-19 is concerned, 72 cases were registered for celebrating Holi in public places. As many as 871 people were prosecuted or arrested for various violations such as drinking in public places, disturbing peace, obstructing or annoying people on streets, not wearing masks and not following social distancing, Delhi Police spokesperson Chinmoy Biswal said.
“We also impounded 1,696 vehicles. No major incident was reported during Holi this year. Delhi Police takes this opportunity to thank all stakeholders for extending their cooperation celebrating Holi while observing Covid appropriate behaviour,” said Biswal.
Apart from the police, the Delhi government also issued challans for mask and social distancing-related violations. According to government’s data, a total of 2,758 challans were issued by all the 11 revenue districts on Monday with north revenue district topping the chart by issuing 607 fines. The lowest fines — 74 in total — was issued by the central revenue district, the data shows.
The government collected ₹51,24,910 from all the challans issued.
Although no major untoward incidents were reported on the day, a video was circulated on social media in which a crowd is seen alleging that the police interrupted a Holika Dahan in east Delhi’s Krishana Nagar by dousing the flames with water. It was also alleged that two people had been detained.
Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundaram, however, refuted the allegations by saying that the incident was not related to Holika Dahan but was of a normal fire that had spread to an overhead wire, a tree and signboards of nearby shops. “The fire was timely doused by the policemen with the help of locals. The allegations against the police are false. Nobody was detained,” said Sathiyasundaram.