Times of
India: Pune: Friday, May 10, 2019.
The
replies to a city-based NGO’s Right to Information (RTI) applications have
revealed a stark difference between the enforcement of helmet compulsion by the
Pimpri Chinchwad police and Pune police.
The
(RTI) applications were filed by Sandeep Gaikwad, a member of the city-based
NGO Parisar and District Road Safety Committee.
The
Primpri Chinchwad police have fined about 4,130 helmetless riders between
October 2018 and March, this year. Meanwhile, the Pune police fined over 4.89
lakh helmetless riders between January 1 and March 15, 2019.
The
NGO also conducted a study on helmet compliance in the Pimpri Chinchwad
municipal limits in February. “The survey report revealed that single rider
helmet compliance stood at 49%, while pillion rider helmet compliance stood at
30%,” Gaikwad stated.
Parisar,
on December 31, 2018, had issued legal notices to the police commissioners of
Pune as well as Pimpri Chinchwad, the director general of police, state transport
commissioner and the Regional Transport Officer, Pune, for failing to ensure
strict compliance of the provisions of section 129 of the Motor Vehicles Act,
1988.
Speaking
to TOI, programme director of Parisar Ranjit Gadgil said, “We may take further
legal measures or escalte the matter with higher authorities within the state
government. There is willingness to act and enforce the helmet mandate in Pune.
But a similar willingness is missing in Pimpri Chinchwad.”
“The
Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner maintains that they are focusing on issues
like wrong-side driving. However, we will continue to advocate the use of
helmets as that is one way of reducing fatalities,” he said.
Pimpri
Chinchwad police commissioner R K Padmanabhan said, “We are enforcing the
helmet mandate as a part of the overall traffic initiative. In whatever offence
a motorcyclist is caught, the helmet section is invariably applied if he/she is
riding helmetless. The overall focus is on all-round traffic discipline.”
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