In the wake of recent spate of fatal accidents due to drunken driving in the Capital, Delhi Traffic Police has written to the Transport Department to expedite the process of revoking the driving licences and permits of around 16,000 people who have been repeatedly caught for driving under the influence. Moreover, the rank and file of Traffic Police – from constable to Special Commissioner – too will personally crack the whip on violators.
“We have written to revoke the licences of the drivers who have been caught for drunken driving more than once. We have also written for revoking of permits of commercial vehicles under the repeat offender policy whose drivers have been found drunk more than once,” said Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Muktesh Chander.
The entire figure stands at around 16,000 and includes 302 drivers who were caught driving drunk more than once this year. The remaining number is of the commercial vehicles whose permits need to be cancelled. Explaining the policy for commercial vehicles, Chander said, if two different drivers of the same bus are caught driving in an inebriated on different occasions, the vehicle’s permit will be cancelled. Out of the total 20,400 drivers prosecuted for drunken driving from January 1 to August 15 this year, 302 are repeat offenders, according to the data compiled by the Delhi Traffic Police. Delhi Police wants licences of such repeat offenders of drunken driving and over speeding under Section 19 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 revoked. As many as 72,612 people were prosecuted for overspeeding in this period, out of which 1,690 are repeat offenders. This year, we have issued more than 20,400 challans for drunken driving till August 15. This is far greater than 12,784 challans we had issued for the same offence five years ago in 2009 during the entire span of 12 months, he said.
An alarming fact which has emerged in the data collated by Traffic Police is that it prosecutes around 50 lakh traffic offenders every year, while there are 85 lakh registered vehicles in the city, which means more than half the vehicles are challaned every year. This year till August 15, Traffic Police has issued 26,79,613 challans for various traffic-related offences. The only silver lining being the number of fatalities have reduced — 967 people lost their lives on the streets of the Capital till August 15 this year as against 1,118 deaths in the corresponding period last year.