Helmet rule annoying sometimes

Off late, the Road Transport Authority making the use of helmet by two-wheeler riders mandatory in Telangana State has given police the extra teeth to be hyperactive and impose penalty in its name and added to the already existing norms like insurance and pollution etc.

In a safety point of view, the policy is commendable and nobody worth the salt denies this rule when implemented on highway or fast-lane users. But its forceful insistence, that too on those who goes on bike for petty works and small distances like going to a grocery shop or nearby market, or some venders is somewhat a bad idea.

The police check-ups have become very frequent and routine elsewhere. The riders have to face delays and are vexed in showing time and again the related documents, in strict protocol i.e., have to get down by parking the bike aside, stand in queue leaving aside whatever status they have in the society, get their bearings verified or else being advocated, sometimes harshly and/or slapped with a fine in case of any lapse, by the officer camping then and there. The modus operandi in these operations is that the officer in-charge stays at a distance from the frisking point. The officers of lower ranks wait in guise and prowl on the traffic conscious bikers in a reckless manner as if they are the known defaulters, switch off the engine, take the key off and send the individual irrespective of his stature to the checking officer.

Because of these frequent and random nature of checks in small towns in particular and elsewhere in general, persons having some public reputation to be reckoned having to go through this somewhat agonizing phase. For, being a law-abiding citizen first and a school teacher later and well-known in the locality, I myself too had several times faced such face-offs and embarrassments for not wearing my helmet while on my way to petty jobs like market, hurrying on an emergency to a doctor, a stationer or on an urgent official work to be done after the school hours through a net or some via media centres etc, just a furlong away from my place.

One would not find any fault in their checks, but the way they behave with would have to be. Further, what one could not understand is that the top brass are advocating the police to be friendly with the citizens, whereas the officers of lower ranks on the other hand are ignoring them and acting at their will, as if they are still in feudal system, on the poor users of bikes most of who are generally from middle and lower middle classes these days. DEVENDER RAMCHETTY,#14-2-62, BELLAMPALLI-504251, Mancherial District