Bengaluru: Cops want to fine minors without licence Rs 5,000

Bengaluru: If you happen to be a  minor driving a car or riding  a bike in the city without a driving licence (DL), you may have to cough up a fine of not less than Rs 5000 in future as the city police finds the current fine of Rs 500 is not proving enough of a deterrent.

Only in September this year a 17-year-old student was killed and two of his minor friends injured while the three were speeding in one of  their parents’ car on the Hosur Elevated Expressway near Roopena Agrahara.

Hoping to put a stop to such accidents, the police now plans to approach the Karnataka High Court for permission to sharply increase the fine. Says a senior traffic police officer, “Currently the parents of minors are being penalised for allowing their children to ride without a DL and fined aorund Rs 500. But we want to increase the fine to not less than Rs 5,000.”

Recalling that the high court had in 2015 directed the police to book  parents of minors and permitted it to send them to jail under Section 184 besides fining them upto Rs 1,000,  he explains that the police now intends to ask the court's permission to increase the fine  to Rs 5000.

"Only such stringent rules can help curb this menace as despite penalising the parents,  minors are still found riding or driving without a licence,  posing a threat to fellow motorists," he adds.

The officer regrets that although the state government has issued a notification asking educational institutions not to provide parking space for minor students to discourage them from bringing their vehicles to schools,   students continue to park their bikes in the bylanes nearby. "Parents need to be educated about the dangers of allowing their children to ride bikes as they don't have driving licences and  often performs stunts on the roads and indulge in reckless driving," he says, revealing that until October this year 1221 cases had been booked against parents of minors for allowing them to ride bikes and in 2016, around 1591 minors were caught for driving/riding without a DL.

Once it introduces the bigger fine, the police plans to start an awareness programme to educate the minors and their parents about the dangers of driving a car or bike with a licence before imposing the penalty.