Asish Mehta/Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: While the police are penalising motorists for not wearing helmets and drivers who have not put their seat belts on, there is no blocking to check commuters driving in an inebriated state.
Each police station here has alcohol breath analysers to check drunken driving. The traffic police station here has more than two breath analysers.
The commissionerate police had bought alcohol breath analysers in 2010 from Delhi, each at a cost of Rs 10,000 and Rs 15000. ‘‘The breath analysers are now gathering dust in the police stations here,” they added.
“We have an alcohol breath analyser in our station, but it is not working,” a cop posted at Khandagiri police station told this paper.
Several cops have said they were never given any training on handling breath analysers. “Every police station has one alcohol breath analyzer, but we were never trained how to handle them,” a cop posted at Nayapalli police station said.
According to section 185(a) of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, whoever, while driving, or attempting to drive, a motor vehicle has, in his blood, alcohol exceeding 30 mg per 100 ml of blood detected in a test by a breath analyser, shall be punishable for drunken driving.
The first offence can earn up to six months imprisonment or a fine up to Rs 2,000, or both. The second or subsequent offence, if committed within three years of the previous offence, entails imprisonment up to two years or Rs 3,000 fine, or both.
Besides, section 203(4) authorises the police to arrest those who decline to undergo the test. “We conduct blocking to check the commuters who are driving in an inebriated state, but the checking is not frequent,” twin city police commissioner Rajendra Prasad Sharma told Orissa POST.
“In the past also I have directed to conduct frequent blocking to check if the commuters are under the influence of alcohol. I will again direct the cops to rigorously conduct such blocking,” Sharma said.
