Hyderabad: No more fuel for riders without helmets at petrol stations managed by prisons department in Telangana state, said the director general of prisons, V.K. Singh.
Speaking to this newspaper, he said that Telangana state has 13 petrol stations managed by the prisons department and eight more to come, all of which will be included under this permanent order.
“We have petrol pumps at Khammam, Warangal, Adilabad, Nalgonda, Karimnagar and Mahabubnagar, among other areas, where we are yet to issue orders not to provide fuel to those who ride without helmets,” said the official.
The move is said to be taken to strictly impose the helmet rule among the commuters, which again is for their own safety. If strictly enforced, this is a very good move by the government, said M. Vinod Kanumula, chief functionary of the Indian Federation of Road Safety. “When the uniformed men were unable to crackdown on riders without helmets, it is to be seen how this move will turn out. It is a good initiative and it would be of much help if the same could be enforced on city roads as well,” he said.
On Sunday, a youth riding without helmet was killed on the spot due to head injuries when his bike hit a roadside stone at Maheshwaram. Accidents of commuters driving without helmet have even made the public take initiatives to reduce the number of casualties.
A village youth of Nizamabad district came up with the idea of buying helmets and lending it to villagers, free of cost, whenever they use their two-wheelers. The selfless move by the youth is said to have reduced road accident casualties, according to the villagers.
