Panchkula gets tough with drunk drivers

Fine doubled; offenders to sit in court till it rises

Panchkula, March 1
Now tipplers caught driving on Panchkula roads will now have to sit in court till it rises and also cough up Rs 2,000 as fine, double the amount charged earlier.

Following in the footsteps of Chandigarh, the Panchkula court has also started punishing drunk drivers by making them sit in court. Going a step ahead, the court has also sent violators to “bakshikhana” (lockup on court premises) and released only after court working hours. So far, the Panchkula court has punished 15 drunk drivers under the practice, which started last week.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Gurvinder Kaur has been designated as special court to deal with challans pertaining to drunk driving.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Panchkula, Maneesh Chaudhary, had earlier held a meeting with the judges of the Panchkula district court to keep the offenders under arrest till the rising of the court. A communication was issued by the DCP’s office to the district court, requesting it to follow the practice which is already being followed in Delhi and Chandigarh.

Till February 29, the Panchkula police had issued 193 challans against such drivers. The figure in 2011 was 668. The DCP said the Chandigarh and Delhi police were following this practice as a deterrent to drunk driving. He added that to tighten the noose around such violators, the Panchkula police had also regularly started holding police checks and challaning people indulging in such traffic violations.

Permissible blood alcohol limit

According to Section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act, anyone found driving or attempting to drive a vehicle above the permissible limit of alcohol in the blood (30mg/100 ml) faces imprisonment up to six months or a fine of Rs 2,000 or both. Repeat offenders can be fined Rs 3,000 or jailed up to two years. A traffic police official said 30 mg was equal to about two regular pegs of whiskey.