Gurugram: In order to reduce the cases of underage driving the Gurugram, traffic police is mulling over the idea to book the parents of minors if they are caught driving by the law enforcement officials.
In the last two years, over 1,400 minors have been fined for underage driving in the city. If implemented It will be the first time in recent years that police will take such a step.
However, this is not for the first time that this kind of initiative has not been followed in other cities.
In the past Chennai, Hyderabad and Jaipur have implemented this form of programme and have achieved a fair amount of success in reducing the number of road accidents that were caused due to under-age driving.
"Parents of minors who are caught driving will be called to the spot to pay the fine and they will be booked under the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, 1988," said Himanshu Garg, DCP (traffic).
"Most of the minors are accelerator-friendly and they often break traffic rules leading to accidents," a police official said, adding that the guardians of the juvenile drivers will now be held responsible for their offences under the MV Act.
Perpetrators will be charged under Section 180 (allowing unauthorised persons to drive vehicles) and Section 181 (driving the vehicle without possessing a driving licence) of the Act.
There are strict penalties for underage driving. The punishment includes imprisonment for three months, or a fine ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000 or both.
Despite such strict penalties under-age driving continues to be one of the major reasons for road accidents in the city. "Why do you have to go to so far. In posh areas of Golf Course Road and MG road, you can easily see minors driving autos and public buses thus causing a lot of risk to the commuters. It is unfortunate but the law enforcement officials have not been very strict with underage drivers," said Rashmi Sachdeva, a city resident.