Traffic cops crack whip on revellers for drunk driving, over 210 booked

PUNE: The city traffic police on Thursday registered cases against 214 people for driving in inebriated condition during Holi festivities.
The action was taken in all the 22 traffic divisions. “The drive started from 9am and we registered cases against 214 people failing the breath analyzer test till 10pm,” deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Pankaj Deshmukh said.
“The licences of most of the drivers have been impounded. We have registered details of the persons without valid licences. They will be produced in court,” he added.
If convicted for drunk driving, a person’s licence can be suspended for three months and a fine of Rs2,000 slapped on him or her. “The violators can also face imprisonment,” he said. The permissible blood alcohol concentration in a person is 30mg per 100 mg.
The Pune traffic police had caught 424 drunk drivers between 8am and 8pm on the occasion of Holi in 2018. Deshmukh said greater awareness about drunk driving was probably the reason for the drop in the number of drunk driving cases this year. “Many revellers opted to hire cabs,” he said.
Civic activist Vivek Velankar, “There is not as much of action against drunk driving during Holi or other festivals as it is on New Year’s Eve. The cases during this year’s Holi were less maybe because of slack enforcement of laws,” he said.
Parisar programme director Ranjit Gadgil said, “It is also important to consider how many people were stopped for checks to understand how strict the enforcement was.”