Telangana cops upset with Odisha police ‘laxity’ in suspending DL
BHUBANESWAR: The Cyberabad police in Telangana has expressed displeasure over the Odisha transport department’s stance of not suspending the driving licences (DLs) of 21 people who were recently caught for drink driving under their police limits.
All the vehicles were registered with different regional transport offices (RTOs) in Odisha.
“The Cyberabad traffic police have been regularly sending proposals, along with the seized DLs, to different the RTOs in Odisha for their disqualification as the owners were caught for drink driving in our police limits. Another proposal was sent for the suspension of a DL, whose owner had caused a road accident,” S M Vijay Kumar, Cyberabad traffic DCP, recently wrote to Madhusudan Padhi, secretary of the Odisha transport department.
The Cyberabad traffic police had seized the DLs between January and March this year and sent them to the concerned RTOs here for their immediate suspension for three months in accordance with the directive of the Supreme Court committee on road safety.
Kumar added that not even a single DL has so far been suspended. “There has not been any communication from any of the concerned RTOs regarding the action taken against the drivers. On our verification, it was found that no action has been taken yet,” Vijay Kumar said in the letter.
Kumar further said the persons were caught driving in a drunken state under Alwal, Balanagar, Gachibowli, Jeedimelta, Kukatpally, Madhapur, Miyapur, Rajendranagar and RGI Airport traffic police limits. The seized DLs were sent to the RTOs at Dhenkanal, Balasore, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Bhubaneswar, Koraput and Sonepur.
The apex court committee on road safety had on August 18, 2015, directed all states to suspend DLs for four offences. The offences include overspeeding, overloading in goods carriages, drink driving and using phones while driving.
In the letter, he also drew Padhi’s attention towards the rise in the number of road accidents in Cyberabad and the necessity of suspending the DLs of rash drivers. Padhi said he has sent a letter to the RTOs on Monday so that immediate action could be taken on the proposals sent by the Cyberabad traffic police.