SI dressed as Lord Shiva distributing helmets among commuters

KANPUR: Commuters in Etawah on Saturday were in a pleasant surprise when in the ongoing 'Shrawan' month, they witnessed 'Lord Shiva ' walking down the streets and distributing free helmets to two-wheeler riders, smiling and explaining them how fatal it can be without a guard for their head.

Sub-inspector of traffic police Vikas Atri, dressed as 'Lord Shiva', along with his colleagues, was seen walking at the busy Shastri Nagar chauraha of the city asking people to follow traffic rules and distributing free helmets to them on Saturday. SSP Etawah Ashok Kumar Tripathi told TOI that the religious and emotional appeal was adopted to underline the importance of traffic rules.

"Despite daily occurrences of road related fatalities, people do not seem to understand the necessity of wearing helmets. We thought using a religious and emotional appeal would be a good idea to spread awareness in an innovative way. Awareness on traffic norms will be spread with such innovative campaigns in future too", the SSP said further.

The effort was appreciated by everyone. Neelam, a two-wheeler rider, said, "I was surprised to witness Lord Shiva 'sakshat' standing before me and that too in the 'Shrawan month', and handed me a free helmet with a word of caution that how fatal it can be to drive without a head gear. It was really a wonderful innovative campaign for road safety. Now everyone should come forward and take responsibility for themselves else it would be an utter disregard to Lord Shiva," she said.

Sanjay, another commuter, said, "Very pleased to see traffic police seeking divine intervention to make people realise the importance of a helmet."

