Punjab crackdown on drunk rickshaw-pullers

PUBLISHED: 16:51 EST, 24 October 2012 | UPDATED: 17:25 EST, 24 October 2012

In the first of its kind activity in Punjab, an NGO has launched a campaign to create awareness among pedestrians, cyclists, rickshaw-pullers and handcartpullers not to venture out on the roads under the influence of liquor or any other intoxicant.

The campaign has been launched at Jalandhar by Arrive Safe, an NGO working on road safety. The project is part of the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), which is one of the development programmes launched by the World Bank in collaboration with the Punjab Police.

The NGO has been spreading the message for all "not to drink and travel on road."

The step has been taken by an NGO to impose road safety in Pujab

Harman Singh Sidhu, who heads the NGO, said the project focuses on pedestrians and riders of the non-motorised vehicles (NMV). Punjab, like any other city in India, has non-homogenous traffic including heavy vehicles, cars, two and three wheelers.

The roads are also shared by NMVs such as bicycles, rickshaws, hand and animal-drawn carts.

A recipient of the prestigious Prince Michael International Road Safety award and a former anchor of Collision Course, a UNO-BBC documentary shot in India and Brazil, Sidhu himself is a road accident victim.

His world came crumbling down about three decades ago when an accident left him permanently confined to the wheelchair.

"During a research, we discovered that a large number of drunk cyclists and pedestrians commute on the roads. They are both victims as well as the reason behind such accidents," he said.

Consuming alcohol before getting on the road increases the risk of a crash and curbing this could reduce the number of road deaths by 20 per cent.

He said since the NMV riders are not booked under the provisions of the law for drunken driving, there should also be an amendment in law to bring the drivers of NMVs under the ambit of law for causing hazard on the roads under drunken condition.