Pune political parties raise hell over helmets

The parties took out a protest rally on Thursday

The Pune city police chief has made helmets compulsory for motorists in the city, but some political parties would rather stick to not wearing them. In protest of the helmet rule, several parties, like the Shiv Sena, MNS, Congress and NCP, raised hell on Thursday during a rally - by wearing historical 'caps' instead. They even paid the e-challan amount for not wearing helmets.

Over a hundred protesters - who'd united under the umbrella of the 'Helmet Virodhi Samiti' - participated in the rally from Ghanje chowk to the Pune police commissioner's office. They wore pagadis worn by Mahatma Phule, Shindes and Peshwas. BJP sat this one out. Former corporator and lawyer from MNS, Rupali Patil Thombare, said, "The rule of wearing a helmet cannot be made compulsory, as it is the citizen's liberty and choice. This is just to extort money from people."

Congress MLC Mohan Joshi, said, "There are various reasons why people don't want to wear helmets. If the police are that worried about people, they should increase patrolling, stop atrocities on women and robberies in homes. They're doing this to grab money from people." Deputy commissioner of police (traffic), Tejaswini Satpute said, "We are implementing the law. Many support this rule while a few people are agitating. In the two days since we've implemented it, around 7,500 people have been penalised."

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