Road safety awareness: Lady civic volunteers celebrate Bhai Phonta, gift helmets to riders
BALURGHAT: Ensuing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's slogan 'Safe Drive Save Life' to create road safety awareness, Balurghat police celebrated Bhai Phonta on Friday at Thana More. As part of the celebrations, the bike riders who were seen riding bikes without helmets were gifted free helmets.
Lady civic volunteers, who led the celebration, applied 'Phonta' (teeka) on the foreheads of the pillion riders running without helmets and prayed for hassle-free rides. While in turn, they also received gifts mainly cash as the celebration was unexpected for the riders.
Wearing uniform and standing on both sides of the road, the newly turned sisters prayed for long life of their new brothers. The brothers also received warnings from the sisters to not disobey the traffic rules and ride bikes without helmets.
Police have decided to celebrate Bhai Phonta on Friday to give an alert to the bike riders violating traffic rules. It is mandatory to wear helmets while riding bikes in West Bengal.
Civic volunteer Chitra Mondal (Saha Roy) who took part in the celebration, said: "It's a new experience for me in service life to celebrate the ritual in such a unique way. I asked them to always wear helmets from today onwards for their safety. I gifted all of them helmets. In return, they also promised to wear them."
Visibly ashamed for not wearing a helmet, a local Rupakartha Mazumdar, who received Bhai Phonta from the police, promised to always wear it while riding.
"We have safety in our own hands. Life is precious for everybody. Riding bikes without helmets leads to danger which is unwanted. Through the celebrations of Bhai Phonta, we have delivered an awareness message of road safety to the residents," said Assistant Sub-Inspector, Samaresh Singha, who attended
the programme.
Another ASI, Manik Sarkar, who also attended the celebration said: "We have strict instruction to allow only two persons on same bike at the same time both wearing helmets. We are determined to make the slogan Safe Drive Safe Life of our CM a successful one."
