BENGALURU: Former Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) P Harishekaran’s initiative of ‘no helmet, no fuel’, has gone for a toss after he was transferred by the Karnataka government to the post of IGP, Karnataka State Reserve Police, Bengaluru.
The ‘no helmet, no fuel’ rule was going to be implemented from August 5. The move was brought in by Harishekaran in order to curb accidents involving two-wheeler riders who usually avoid wearing helmets. However, the rule never came into effect and motorists continue to get fuel for their bikes even though they are not wearing helmets.
Workers at various petrol bunks said that no such rule had ever been put into place at their petrol stations. “Earlier we were told by the owner not to give fuel to riders who come to the stations without wearing helmets, but then it was immediately called off. The rule was never put into force,” a worker at a petrol bunk in Marathahalli said.
According to B R Ravindranath, president of Bengaluru Petroleum Owners Association, there was no confirmation by the Bengaluru traffic police about carrying out the order.
“If the BTP wants us to carry out the rule, we will definitely do it. But we did not get any proper confirmation from BTP. In fact, after Harishekaran was transferred, we did not get any orders from B R Ravikanthegowda, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) either.”
He added that in a meeting with BTP, the Bengaluru Petroleum Owners Association had even asked for police personnel at petrol stations in case any rider picked a fight over not being given fuel.
Some Bengalureans said they were pretty certain that the rule would never be put into place.
“The moment I heard about the initiative, I knew it wouldn’t work. Be it the civic officials or the traffic police, they don’t do anything efficiently,” said Vidhya Kumar, a techie from Marathahalli.
A traffic police officer from Halasuru traffic police station said, “This was not a rule but a social boycott kind of concept to avoid accidents. However, it never started and we did not get any further information on it from the higher officials.”