The Pune rural police have decided to file cases against owners of dhabas, hotels, beer bars, petrol pumps and hospitals located along highways in the district for allegedly puncturing dividers illegally.
Concerned at the spurt in fatal road accidents, the former superintendent (Pune rural) Pratap Dighavkar told DNA, “We have decided to file cases under 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, against those owners of dhabas, hotels, beer bars, petrol pumps and hospitals located along highways in the district for puncturing dividers.’’
Police officers said they have inspected the Pune-Ahmednagar, Pune-Mumbai, Pune-Solapur, Pune-Satara and Pune-Nashik highways, and found that dividers were punctured at many places.
“The Wagholi-Ranjangaon stretch on the Pune-Ahmednagar highway and Chakan on the Pune-Nashik highways were the worst affected zones, where the maximum number of punctures were identified,’’ a police officer said.
Some of the owners and the staff of these commercial establishments create punctures on the dividers so that the cars and other vehicles can reach these outlets without spending much time. But such illegal punctures along the highway can lead to mishaps.
Dighavkar said, “The number of fatal accidents increase during April and May as several weddings take place during these two months. But from this year, we have started penalising vehicles used during wedding processions that violate the traffic rules.’’
A police officer, requesting anonymity told DNA, “The rural police don’t have enough traffic staff and this affects work. Every police station has one or two police constables for managing traffic. If the police station is situated on the highway, they have maximum three constables.’’
However, Dighavkar claimed that the strength of the traffic department working in the Pune rural police is adequate. “We have increased our strength in traffic department in district. We have enough manpower in the traffic department for proper policing,’’ he said.
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