The New Year festivities have begun to fade with people getting back to their normal routine from Monday onwards. But as the city of Bengaluru thronged the streets to usher in the new year on Saturday night, the police personnel had a tough time keeping the crowd in control.
According to The New Indian Express, more than 400 cases of drunk driving were registered on the night of December 31 in Bengaluru. The traffic police are also mulling the possibilities of recommending to the RTO to cancel the licenses of the defaulters.
A senior traffic police official told TNIE:
"The city was in a celebratory mood so we played an advisory role rather than booking cases. We advised many youngsters, who were drunk, to take a cab, Metro or a BMTC bus. We warned them of strict action if they drive under the influence of alcohol. We are happy that no major accidents were reported.”
The reasoning comes in the wake of several motorists raising complaints that the police personnel on duty till 2am on Sunday morning, were lenient with some motorists, despite the latter being under the influence of alcohol.
As opposed to nearly 461 cases registered on New Year's Eve, as many as 292 cases of drunk driving were registered on the night of December 30, in the east Bengaluru division alone, states a report in Bangalore Mirror.
According to another report in The Hindu, of the 461 cases filed in the city, as many as 420 were filed in the west division and the remaining 41 were filed in the east division.
This year's figures stand in drastic contrast with the figures from the previous years. While 283 cases were filed in 2015, 2014 saw 307 cases being filed for drunk driving.