Saturday, 04 February 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Parents will be booked by the Dehradun police and may face three months imprisonment and Rs 25,000 penalty if their minor child is caught driving. The police will run an awareness campaign in the city through schools for a few weeks and if the situation does not improve, police will take action against the parents. The Dehradun superintendent of police (Traffic) Akshay Konde said that the decision has been taken considering the rising traffic violations by minors which put their as well as others’ safety and wellbeing at risk in public places.
Considering this, traffic police have prepared a message to create awareness among the parents and sent it to all school principals of the city with the direction to compulsorily display it on the notice board of the school. He said that the schools have also been asked to spread the message among parents of students digitally too. Konde has also appealed to all school authorities to ensure students especially those in classes IX to XII take an oath issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to raise awareness about road safety and traffic rules.
He said that traffic police are also raising awareness by putting up posters on school walls to make students aware of the provision of punishment for traffic violations under the Motor Vehicles Act. He said that under section 199A of the MV Act, the guardian or owner of the motor vehicle operated by the minor can be imprisoned for up to three years and penalised with a fine of Rs 25,000. If found guilty, the minor would not be able to get a driving license before the age of 25 years under this Act, he said. If no improvement is observed in the city in a few weeks, the traffic police will take action under the MV Act to send parents to jail for three months.
