Amritsar: Police on mission to educate kids against underage driving

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, July 22

With state traffic police authorities decided to tighten the noose around underage driving problem rampant in Punjab, the traffic police wing here has been holding awareness programmes in educational institutes especially schools to aware the children about its perils and rules regarding it.

Additional Director General of Police (Traffic) has recently issued comprehensive and strict instructions to implement motor vehicle norms in letter and spirit and discourage the unchecked practice of underage driving in the state. He had passed the instructions to all the police commissionerates and SSPs in this connection.

If the stringent provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act are implemented in exact manner, the parents and vehicle owners could land in trouble and have to pay hefty fines or even face jail term.

“As per the Act, the parents of the children indulging in underage driving of two or four wheelers would be fined Rs 25,000 besides three years of jail,” said Harpal Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic wing.

Till now, the police have been lenient on under age driving as a significant number of school going children were using two wheelers or car for going to their schools. The parents argued that as many of them are working parents they could not find time for dropping and picking up their wards. Moreover school transports such as auto-rickshaws and vans are also not fully safe. The majority of them don’t adhere to the Safe Vahan policy implemented by the government due to the lax attitude of the administration and the police.

The step has been taken for instilling a sense and a culture among the people to adhere to traffic norms. This would not only help in streamlining the traffic in better way but also assist in the decreasing road mishaps. The rules would be strictly implemented from July 31 onwards. No underage driving would be allowed. “There is clear message for every stakeholder that no negligence would be tolerated while following road safety measures,” said the ADCP.

Till July 31, the Education Cell of the Traffic Wing will hold awareness campaigns and after that no leniency would be allowed.