Ahmedabad: Helmet off most heads, sense prevails on some

AHMEDABAD: Helmets that were becoming an integral part of road traffic, albeit rather begrudgingly, did a disappearing act from most heads after the Vijay Rupani-led BJP government announced it had “temporarily postponed” the mandatory use of helmets in cities.
One day after government’s populist move giving people the option to not wear a helmet, most heads were seen on city roads leaving their safety gear at home.

Tejas Patel, DCP (admiistration), said that the government postponed the rule implementation following complaints by citizens of inconvenience. “However, helmets make a big difference in safety and save riders from grievous head injuries. We will soon come up with awareness campaigns to encourage people to wear helmets,” said Patel.
“It was suffocating to wear a helmet as it causes excessive perspiration and rashes on the skin and hair fall. It was also very cumbersome to care for it when I stopped at multiple places to shop for my home and children,” says Dr Avani Modi, a Maninagar resident.
Many people including Ahmedabad municipal commissioner Vijay Nehra appealed to people to wear helmets for their own safety. “I strongly appeal to all citizens in Ahmedabad to wear helmets while riding two wheelers. Remember, Niyam sarkar ka hai, par jivan appka hai” Nehra tweeted.
Meanwhile, city traffic police are reported to have filed 553 cases for traffic violations for not wearing helmets on Wednesday and collected fines of Rs 2.67 lakhs. On December 4, when the rule was in force, 613 cases were registered and fines of Rs 3.65 lakh were collected. There were reports of face-offs between cops and citizens at many places including Memnagar, Vastrapur and Akhbarnagar as people showed them news of the minister making helmets optional. Later, police were reported to have issued a directive on social media to not book cases of helmet violations.