Police crack whip on errant drivers

Abiding by the home ministry’s directive to “be vigilant and affect a hard crackdown on those flouting basic laws” in the garb of anti-corruption crusaders, the Delhi Traffic Police, along with the Delhi Police, prosecuted more than a thousand drivers in 27 hours till Saturday evening.

Abiding by the home ministry’s directive to “be vigilant and affect a hard crackdown on those flouting basic laws” in the garb of anti-corruption crusaders, the Delhi Traffic Police, along with the Delhi Police, prosecuted more than a thousand drivers in 27 hours till Saturday evening.

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However, this crackdown on traffic rule violators had its own interesting twist of ‘Annagiri’.

Close to 90% people were issued court challans instead of being fined on-the-spot by traffic police officers - lest the meagre fine for minor offences be ‘misunderstood’ as a bribe.

“On Friday and Saturday, we prosecuted a total of 1,135 commuters. As per orders, a conscious effort was made to issue court challans and confiscate the errant drivers’ licence or the vehicle’s registration certificate instead of fining them on the spot,” said a senior traffic police officer requesting anonymity.

Though Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic), chose to remain tight-lipped about the ‘court challan versus on-the-spot fine’ debate, he confirmed that a majority of those prosecuted were bikers and the ‘Anna cap’ was a common headgear. According to the traffic police, a total of 649 persons were caught on Friday while the number stood at 486 till 8pm on Saturday.

“At India Gate, 285 of those prosecuted were bikers while the rest were car owners. There were six cases of drunken driving and the rest were of dangerous and triple riding as well as riding without a helmet,” Garg said. On Saturday, 314 persons were prosecuted for driving without helmet, 44 for triple riding, 102 for jumping traffic signals while 26 were booked for dangerous driving, at major intersections such as Jawaharlal Nehru Marg adjacent to the Ramlila Maidan, Mathura Road, Burari crossing, Seelampur and Rohtak Road among others.