No helmet-no-fuel drive has few takers in Kozhikode

Kozhikode: No helmet-no-fuel initiative of the Malappuram district police has come a cropper as most of the petrol bunks refused to implement the order.

The filling stations stopped prominently displaying the poster alerting youngsters that no fuel would be sold to them if they are triple-riding or not wearing helmets.

Both the motorists and pump operators dismissed this as just a notice, and the youth continue to fill petrol without wearing helmets and often riding triple.

DC took a peak hour view of roads in Malappuram and found that about 80 percent of two wheeler riders rode without a helmet, and many were rash driving with three people on the bikes.

No police intervention was visible and in petrol stations, these youth got their fuel hassle-free.

“If we stick to the police order, we will only lose business as the other pumps are ready to sell. So we did not want to lose business and decided not to go by the police directive,” operator of a fuel station on Palakkad-Kozhikode highway told DC.

Pump operators say unless police could enforce it strictly and make sure that all pumps comply with the order, this directive will not get the desired result.

Police has legal limitations in implementing the directive as they do not have any right to force an operator.

“Police could only request the pump owners to comply with this order as it for the benefit of the society. The pump owners had also agreed to comply but when one or two of them refuse, others lose business. So slowly everyone refused to comply,” another fuel pump operator said.