Bengaluru: The Police Department has taken a significant step towards curbing the ‘bribe charges’ in the process of registering a drunken driving case in Bengaluru and has empowered only inspectors to file complaints.
In a City where there are many IT-BT companies, weekend parties are common. People who have worked hard all week get together with their friends and relatives and do enjoy their drink. In view of the safety of the public, the traffic police are filing complaints against drunk driving and imposing fines.
Along with the inspector, SI and ASI grade officers were also empowered to file cases related to drunken driving. It was widely accused of giving way to extortion by lower-level staff. The amount of fine (Rs. 10,000) for drunk driving is expensive. There was an allegation that this was giving way to bribery.
Instead of paying expensive fines, the riders used to bribe the Police and escape from being penalised as per the law. On the other hand, the lower level Police used to take bribes by threatening to impose the fine.
In addition, there are recurring cases of low-level personnel treating motorists inhumanely on the pretext of duty. In order to curtail the gambit of the lower level staff along with bribe collections , only the inspectors have been given the responsibility of registering cases related to drunken driving. The powers of SIs and ASIs have been curtailed to bring transparency in the process of lodging complaints of drunken driving.
There are 48 Traffic Police Stations in the city, and at seven to eight points within each station, motorists were checked for drunken driving. Now, as only the inspector has to file a complaint, drunk driving is being checked at one point of each police station. These check points change regularly.
Staff should treat drunk drivers with courtesy. Senior officials have sent a verbal message to the staff of the traffic police stations in the city that the riders should not be exploited under the guise of duty. “There were widespread complaints that bribery was taking place in the process of registering a drunk driving case. Thus, to bring transparency, only inspectors have been given the responsibility of filing complaints,” said Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic Division, M. N. Anucheth.
So far, the city used to conduct drunk driving checks only once a week. Motorists were checked only on Saturday or Sunday. From now it has been ordered to inspect 2 days in a week. As before, it has been decided to conduct sudden drive on any day in the middle of the week along with Saturday or Sunday. DCPs of respective Traffic Divisions decide the date of Drunk Driving Check. This schedule will change every week.