Cops paste stickers on vehicles with message warning against use of mobile while driving

Kolkata: The state Transport department and police have jointly initiated a statewide drive to ensure that drivers do not use mobile phones while driving.

The police are now pasting stickers and posters containing messages on the quantum of punishment, if one is caught speaking over mobile phone while driving. These are being put up on vehicles so that it

creates awareness among drivers.

Small stickers are being pasted at a corner of the windscreens of commercial vehicles, so that they keep reminding the drivers of the punishment they have to face if they speak over mobile phone while driving.

The message on the posters and stickers is in Hindi and Bengali and it reads: "It is an offence to speak over phone while driving. Fine will be slapped on driver or he will be put behind bars. Driving licence would also get cancelled".

Staring from auto-rickshaws to trucks, posters and stickers are being put up on all vehicles and according to the police, it will immensely help in further bringing down the rate of accidents.

The initiative is a part of the Safe Drive Save Life campaign that was initiated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the state has witnessed a reduction in the number of road accidents due to the initiative.

The state Transport department and the police had initiated taking necessary measures to check driving of vehicles while speaking over mobile phone, after an accident in Murshidabad in which a bus fell from a bridge into the river and claimed several lives.

The police have also provided WhatsApp numbers on which common people can send photographs if they find anyone speaking over phone while driving.

It may be mentioned that using mobile phone while driving a motor vehicle constitutes "nuisance or danger to the public under Rule 21 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and the provisions of clause (f) of sub-section (1) of section 19 of the Motor Vehicles act, 1988, empowering a licensing authority to disqualify such an offender from holding a driving licence or revoking such a licence."

The police take immediate action if they even find someone riding a motorcycle with a cell phone tucked into the helmet, with the rider speaking over it while riding the two-wheeler.

Now, with the steps taken to create awareness and at the same time legal steps that the police are taking against drivers caught using cell phone while driving, will help in further reduction in the rate of road accidents in the state.