Imphal : Under the Manipur government’s ‘no helmet, no fuel’ rule, petrol pumps were strictly advised to not give fuel to drivers without helmets.

Cracking the whip on those who do not obey the rule to wear helmets while riding two-wheelers, Manipur government on August 16 last announced introduction of ‘no helmet, no fuel’ rule in the state with effect from September 1, 2016.

Under the rule, two-wheeler riders will not get petrol at pumps if the rider and pillion are found to be sans helmets.

The government’s decision has, however, not found any support as petrol dealers continued to give fuel to bikers without helmets and bikers don’t care of the new rule.

State transport commissioner M Lakshmi Kumar, in an interview with a local cable network Monday warned the petrol pumps that permits will be cancelled in case they were found giving fuel to drivers without helmets.

The commissioner said that state transport department has issued a notice on August 16, 2016 stating that ‘no helmet no petrol’ system would be introduced in Manipur with effect from September 1, 2016.

The decision to implement the rule was taken after consultation with all concerned departments of the state government.

Since the issue of the notification, traffic control police assisted by civil police have been conducting drive against two-wheeler riders with no helmets. Till September 22 last, 1,548 cases were registered for traffic offence and collected Rs 3.98 lakh as fine from the offenders.

The state transport department has taken up to introduce the stringent measure to check deaths resulting out of road accident by ensuring two-wheeler riders wearing helmet.

The commissioner said “Road safety is the cornerstone of transport department and every effort is made to make the roads in the state more safe so that there is substantial reduction in deaths resulting out of road accident.”

Towards this end, to amend the Motor Vehicles Act by the Centre to enhance the penalties for traffic rules violation was under consideration.

The transport department in pursuit of this goal issued a notification on July 25 last to make it mandatory for any person driving or ridding a two-wheeler to wear helmet conforming to BIS standard.

Another step to enhance the safety of school going children, the department has also issued a notification mandating that no vehicle used for transporting schools children should not carry more than 1.5 times of its registered seating capacity.

“It has also made it compulsory to paint a yellow strip on school children carrying vehicles as also making mandatory to register these vehicles as commercial vehicle,” the commissioner added.

  Manipur, Northeast