Hyderabad: The ongoing crackdown on drunken driving has seen the Chanchalguda Central Prison flooded with drunken drivers, whose jail term ranges from two days to 25 days.
On an average, 500 drunken drivers are sent to the prison per month and 15 drunken drivers are lodged in the jail per day except on government holidays. The prison authorities have arranged a separate barrack for drunken drivers so as to prevent them from getting into contact with other inmates.
All the convicted drunken drivers are told to watch documentaries on drunken driving on the first day of their stay in the jail. It is followed by counselling sessions, orientation classes and tests.
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These motivational programmes are implemented to help drunken drivers mend their ways. The drunken drivers have to attend awareness sessions for the first three days and those whose sentence stretches beyond are allocated routine works on par with the other inmates.
B. Saidaiah, deputy inspector-general of prisons, said, “We allocate them simple works. The focus is on correctional measures and we want to change their attitude.”
B. Saidaiah added the department was focusing more on de-addiction. “At the Chanchalguda prison, majority of the youths take an oath that they will abstain from consuming alcohol forever and a few others promise that they will stay away from alcohol while they are behind the wheel,” he said. Officials from the prisons department attributed the rise in number of inmates to special occasions and holidays.
“During summer, alcohol addicts take less quantity. During the Dasara season, a minimum of 20 drunken drivers were lodged in the Chanchalguda jail,” he said.
“Moreover, the Cyberabad and Rachakonda traffic police has also rounded up many drunken drivers through their special drives. Again, the traffic police from 26 units in the city produces drunken drivers before courts, which convict them without delay,” they said.
