New MV Act: 178 held for drunken driving in a day in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: As many as 178 persons were arrested in one day across Odisha under new Motor Vehicles (MV) Act for drunken driving.

On Sunday, total 5,474 vehicles were checked at various traffic posts and points across the state, out of which 178 drunk drivers were caught during crackdown in one day.

The arrested persons were forwarded to courts, said interim DGP Satyajit Mohanty.

In Bhubaneswar, the RTO officials collected Rs 1.65 lakh fine from the traffic rule violators on day one. The Commissionerate police had conducted checking at 36 locations in the city.

Similarly, 65 motorcyclists were fined in Balasore for not wearing helmet. Three were arrested for driving in inebriated state. The fine amount was collected from 19 in Bhadrak. Rs 1 lakh fine was collected from 60 violators in Keonjhar district.

With tightening of the traffic rules under Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019 from December 1, the transport and police officials have kept vigil on all the vehicle users everywhere mostly in towns and cities.

As per the instructions by the authorities, there will be no relief for the vehicle owners for violating traffic rules during crackdown.

The penalty will be imposed on the violators for not wearing helmet, using set-belt, speed driving, rash driving, triple riding, drunken driving and wrong route driving.

Even as the government has extended deadline for three months for re-enforcement of MV Act, the penalty cannot be dodged for violating traffic rules, the transport minister had clarified earlier.