Mumbai police book 3,440 motorists on December 30 night

Mumbai: The Mumbai police registered cases against 3,440 motorists on the night of December 30, of which almost 40 per cent were of driving under the influence. The police collected a total fine of Rs 4.90 lakh during the exercise.

The traffic policemen used debit card swipe machines so that offenders could not use the excuse of not having change to pay the fine amount. The police has planned an extensive anti drink-driving campaign on the last day of the year. S Koregaonkar, a traffic police inspector, said “After demonetisation people argue with the officials regarding not having money to pay (the fine), so some banks have provided us with debit card swipe machines.”

Mr Koregaonkar further added, “We have been doing several social awareness campaigns and advertisements for the past few months so we expect the cases to reduce. We have posted traffic policemen along with city police officials at every point in the city.” Last month, the Mumbai police commissioner issued a circular, which mandates the presence of an armed policeman for routine nakabandis. The circular also mandates that the entire nakabandi be video recorded and a city policeman be posted along with the traffic policemen.