A judge in Hyderabad has come up with an unusual punishment for motorists caught for driving under the influence of alcohol. In a first of its kind, drunk drivers who were first time offenders and had been caught with lower blood alcohol levels were made to man traffic signals and perform the duties of a regular traffic constable as punishment.
The New Indian Express on Tuesday reported that 31 drivers who were caught for the first time for the offence, were sentenced to perform traffic duties for five hours.
''The Third Metropolitan Magistrate Court has awarded them a noble punishment; people who get caught for drinking and driving will have to perform duties of a traffic constable at main traffic junctions in the city. 31 accused performed their duties at the Nampally Traffic Junction on Tuesday,” DCP A V Ranganath told The News Minute.
Previous punishments for first time offenders have included community service tasks such as carrying awareness-building placards at busy traffic junctions.
“This is a noble punishment and will create more understanding among people about how difficult the duties of a constable are. Also, they will understand traffic rules and gain awareness. That is the main idea of this punishment. After this kind of punishment, they would be sensitized about drunken driving and its ill effects of and it gives them a good chance to change themselves,'' he added.
TNIE reported that a similar exercise was carried out by the Cyberabad police a few weeks ago with two such violators.
According to DCP Ranganath Hyderabad has a severe problem of drunken driving. 'Every week almost 500 people get charge sheeted, which means 2000 people every month and yearly around 24,000 people. “there is a separate block for traffic offenders in Chanchalguda jail,” he said.