Click to play videoNew Delhi: Drunken driving has become a big menace in Delhi and neighbouring areas. The police claim surprise checks are helping them keep a check on the menace but statistics show a much worrying picture.
A 61-year-old vegetable vendor was run over and killed by a car on Sunday near Indian Gate in New Delhi. The driver, 28-year-old Sumit Mittal, employed by a garment firm in Gurgaon was found to be under the influence of alcohol.
A night's drive through the National Capital Region shows that checks on drunken driving are slack. Checks happen only when senior officers say so and that too not after midnight.
"We carry out checks only when senior officers tell us," says a Noida police constable.
"We carry out check from 8 (2000 hrs IST) in the evening till 1 (0100 hrs IST) in the night," says a Gurgaon police constable.
Gurgaon and Noida have a buzzing nightlife but lag way behind in police manpower when compared to Delhi.
While Delhi has 4700 traffic policemen, Gurgaon has just 310 and Noida just 103.
Breath analysers are also few with the Delhi Police having 716 of them.
Noida police have just 18 and Gurgaon makes do with just 12
Ramesh Yadav lost his 15-year-old son Divyanshu in a car accident in Gurgaon in 2008. The boy driving, who survived, was found to be drunk. Yadav feels the law tends to be too soft.
"That boy got just two years in jail. He later filed an appeal. The punishment should be harsher, maybe 10 years," says Ramesh Yadav.
In Gurgaon alcohol shops aren't supposed to sell liquor post mid-night but no one really follows this rule.
The shops that seem to be shut sell liquor through their windows and one can ll get it easily.
What is shocking is that there are PCR vans standing near many of the shops and the officials in it are fully aware about what is happening.
Special drives and surprise checks are not helping control drunken driving. What is needed are regular checks and a better equipped force.
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