160 Caught For Drunken Driving In 24 Hours: Odisha DGP

Cuttack/Bhubaneswar: Following a directive by the State Transport Commissioner to take action against errant drivers, the in-charge Director General of Police (DGP), Satyajit Mohanty, on Saturday said as many as 160 persons were penalised for drunken driving in the past 24 hours in Odisha.

A fine of Rs 10,000 each was collected from them under the Motor Vehicle Act, 2019, Mohanty told reporters in Cuttack. Of those penalised, 27 were caught in Ganjam district, he added.

Later in Bhubaneswar, twin city police commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi said the commissionerate police will slap hefty fines on any person found violating traffic rules.

“To ensure proper implementation of the new law, police are keeping a close watch on all major thoroughfares in the twin cities. If anyone violates traffic rules, fines would be slapped through challan. We have instructed the traffic police personnel not to argue with the rule violators. If they do not pay the fine in cash on the spot, a fine will be slapped through a challan and sent to their address so that they will pay the cash at the counter of Regional Transport Office (RTO) within a specified timeline. In case they do not pay the fine, they will have to pay it with interest at the time of depositing the annual tax at the RTO,” he added.

The police commissioner further said that places where the traffic police are not present, violators of traffic rules at these places will be identified through CCTV.

Asked about the locations in Bhubaneswar where the vehicles will be checked, Sarangi said that initially, it will start from Rupali Square in Saheed Nagar and subsequently extended to other major locations in the city.

Commerce and Transport minister Padmanabha Behera said that the state government has allowed a three-month relaxation to obtain the required vehicle documents. However, there will be strict enforcement of traffic rules from Sunday. “There will be no checking of documents. But there will be no relaxation for those violating traffic rules and fines will be collected from them,” he said.