BHUBANESWAR: The state transport department has asked the police commissionerate to probe a traffic-related offence in which a woman was let off with Rs 500 fine after she was caught driving under the influence of alcohol near AG Square in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday night.
The department said the amended Motor Vehicles (MV) Act mandates immediate arrest of drunk drivers and Rs 10,000 fine if found guilty by the court.
The MV Act does not allow the enforcing officers to impose fine on drunk drivers.
While the police can only make arrests in such cases, some cops showed leniency to the drunk woman and allowed her to go with Rs 500 fine.
Taking a strong note of the incident, the state transport secretary Madhu Sudan Padhi on Thursday wrote a letter to commissioner of police Saumendra Priyadarshi and urged him to conduct an inquiry as to why the cops did not initiate stringent action against the woman, who was driving in a drunken state.
“Instructions must be issued to all police stations not to compound the drink driving cases. The drunk drivers must be arrested as per the MV Act. The latest incident may be investigated as to under which circumstances the drunk driver was allowed to pay fine for the offence,” Padhi wrote.
As per the section 185 of the MV Act, a drunk driver shall be sentenced to imprisonment up to six months for first offence or fine of Rs 10,000 or both.
For second offence, the offender may face jail term up to two years and pay fine up to Rs 15,000.
“The Supreme Court committee on road safety has directed suspension of the driving licence of such offenders for three months. Road safety is a matter of concern. The committee has expressed concern on the rise in fatalities. During 2019, at least 1068 road accidents had occurred due to drink driving,” Padhi’s letter said.
Though the state witnessed a marginal fall in deaths due to drink driving in 2019 as compared to 2018, the government has asked the police and regional transport officers to further curb the menace.
The ‘accidents in India’ data released by the ministry of road transport and highways placed Odisha at second position in the country with 552 deaths due to drink driving in 2018. The state was placed fourth with 507 drink driving deaths in 2019.