Drunken driving in Mumbai and New Delhi, and how they are tackled
Been a resident of Mumbai for 12 years, and almost one year in Delhi now. All metros have a problem of drinking and driving, and accidents caused by it. You hear a lot less about it in Mumbai generally, but when you do, it is on the lines of half a dozen people sleeping on the pavement getting killed. In Delhi it is much more common, but you don’t hear about such high profile incidents.
I have just landed in Mumbai on a short break, and the news on the drunken driving front is just super. A couple of thousand people were arrested last week - prompted by the general disgust among people about the accidents - and quite a few were sent to jail. They include a woman too! Bravo!
We are getting a step closer to male-female equality, aren’t we, when women are caught and sent for drunken driving?
A month back, I had heard of police in Mumbai waiting outside pubs and catching offenders as they come out sozzled. I have been looking for something positive to say about Mumbai for a while, and here it is!
People being sent to jail for anything from 2 days to 45 days - that is a brilliant example. It will make them remember their nanis, as Rajiv Gandhi used to say. I mean who would want to get into that kind of shit? You hear about one person sent to jail by courts for drinking and driving, and there will be a lot of people who get immediately determined never, ever go that way. For that way lies jails, crappy jail food and smelly toilets.
Now I really, really pray to the Gods of all religions to please, please get the cops in Delhi to do this too. I mean it is so easy - 90 % of people out driving after 10 PM in Delhi are drunk anyway! Just send them to the court and then fine them a couple of thousand rupees (good) or sent them to jail for a couple of days (brilliant) and the city would remember their nanis for sure.
There is one thing the capital city understands: Power. Political power, cop power, court power. Show them the power of the arrest. I mean, it is routine, socially accepted and all to drive in Delhi. That has to change. Two pegs, and you are above the legally accepted alcohol limit in your blood. These are people who will never break such a law abroad, but once in Delhi, they feel confident to do so.
I have seen cars full of drunken teens, movie-villain types, born-ruffians all drinking and driving. Driving dangerously. That should stop.
Oh, and I pray more for just more cops out on the streets. More cops stopping cars even to ask a cursory question means trouble for the goondas and rapists on the streets of Delhi.
Beat the city down, and it learns its lessons well. It understands power. Show them the power of the smelly toilet in a dirty jail cell. Please.
Although, it appears that jail for 2-45 days for drunken driving will solve the problem, but think that for one peg, one could get a week in Jail in a country where raping a woman takes years to get sentence. The punishment for drunken driving is not really proportion to the offence.
Being a woan, I would prefer similar steps were taken by police for eve-teasing, molestation, rape in short crime against women.