Motor Vehicles Department to go tough on juvenile drivers

KOZHIKODE: Parents of juvenile traffic offenders will have to sit in transport offices for many hours and attend awareness classes from December onwards. This is in view of the increase in the number of juvenile drivers without licences in the city. According to Motor Vehicles Department officials, it has become difficult to meet the parents in person to warn them to stop their wards from using motor vehicles. The number of parents being called to the offices has doubled in the last three months.

According to the MVD officials, the number of cases booked against juvenile drivers increased to 112 in October from 96 in September. "The irresponsible parenting is the major reason why their wards use the motor vehicles in spite of knowing it is a violation of rule," said Mr C.K. Paulson, Regional Transport Officer. "At present we just leave the parents after warning them and charging a penalty but from December onwards we are going to make them sit in our office for hours which will also include our awareness class. We believe no parent would have the patience to spend time in a transport office, he added.

Once they realise the difficulty and the insult, they will try to stop their wards from using motor vehicles, he said. The 'Idiminnal' project of the city police, which was started to curb the crimes committed by juveniles, has also reported an increase in the number of juvenile drivers. "On an average we book 20 juvenile drivers and a majority of them were caught for taking triple riders on motor bikes and without helmets," said Kasaba CI P. Pramod, the brainchild behind 'Idiminnal.'