Cops to conduct drive four times a week

The Mumbai traffic police will increase their special drive against drunk drivers from three days a week to four days. Earlier, the drive was for two days a week. Speaking on the crucial issue, joint commissioner of police, Vivek Phansalkar said, “We are making continuous efforts to end the menace. Statistics reveal that the number of drunk driving cases have come down. We are happy that people are more cautious than earlier, but we want the number to come down further.” Senior police inspector, prosecution, Sriram Motepatil, confirmed that the drive would be conducted for four days a week. Even as over a lakh people have been arrested for drunk driving since the drive started in 2007, the traffic police are finding it difficult to uproot the menace as they found another 285 motorists driving drunk in last week’s three-day drive. The traffic police are also awaiting 70-odd breath analysers integrated with cameras. However, their over two-year-old proposal to increase the punishment for drunk drivers, which was accepted by the state government was rejected by the Centre, which is planning to form a uniform stringent law against drunk driving for the country. Under the special drive 1,00,286 motorists have been caught for drunk driving since June 20, 2007. While 51,033 were imprisoned, '20,15,15,750 was collected in fines. The court also suspended the licences of 43,644 motorists.