No escape for PCMC mayor, education board chief's cars too

Pimpri traffic cops fine 60 vehicles, including seven civic staffers

Pimpri-Chinchwad mayor and senior civic officials were caught off guard and left embarrassed when their vehicles were found having dark tinted windows.

A drive undertaken by the Pimpri traffic branch on Thursday against vehicles violating traffic norms regarding dark tinted windows saw 60 vehicles paying fines, including Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) mayor Mohini Lande’s official car. Vehicles of seven civic staffers, including the education board chairman, also attracted fines.

After the Delhi gang rape incident, the authorities intensified its drive against use of dark tinted glass films for vehicles’ windows. Rule 100 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, states that the glass of the windscreen and rear window of motor vehicles should have a visibility of at least 70% and that of the side window, a minimum of 50%. A fine of Rs100 is being imposed on the erring vehicle owners under the Motor Vehicles Act.

The Supreme Court had issued strict guidelines regarding tinted windows and has ordered that the glasses should be transparent. Hence, the Pimpri traffic police conducted a major drive in the twin town on Thursday.

The Pimpri traffic police team including police inspector (traffic, Pimpri division) Sanjay Naik Patil, assistant police inspector SR Waidande, hawaldar Jameer Tamboli, Vipul Jadhav, Santosh Ubhe and Anand Patil took part in the drive.

Waidande told DNA, “In the drive, seven official cars and 60 private vehicles were fined for using tinted glass.”

The police said that Lande was not present in the car during the drive. Lande said, “The driver was driving the vehicle at Pimpri when the traffic police took action for the tinted glass. So naturally, the car was inspected by the cops. We had already removed the tinted glass of the car so there is no question of taking action against the official car.”

Besides mayor, the traffic police also collected fine from PCMC education board chairman Vijay Lokhande. The traffic police collected nearly Rs6,000 as fine from the drive on Thursday.