(With inputs from Rudraveer Reddy)

MUMBAI: For three consecutive years between January and May, men in the 26-30 years age group have been leading the lot of drunk drivers prosecuted by the Mumbai Traffic Police .While overall drink driving cases reduced by 38% from 2017 to 2018, they surged by 41% from last year to this year. The recent accident in Goregaon (E) where a drunk youngster rammed his SUV into an Uber cab, killing a passenger, highlights the need for constant enforcement drives. Experts believe that the number of cases recorded last year could have fallen as the traffic police were busy regulating movement of vehicles and could devote lesser manpower to crack down on offenders.“After lawyer Janhavi Gadkar’s arrest in 2015 for causing a fatal crash while driving drunk, the police’s efforts to bring offenders to book peaked. But increased congestion on roads and construction of infrastructure projects like Metro resulted in the traffic police focusing more on regulation as opposed to enforcement. Regulation of traffic should be left to wardens and the police’s priority should be enforcement,” said activist AV Shenoy of Mumbai Vikas Samiti. He questioned whether nakabandis had increased in proportion to the exponential growth in two-wheelers and four-wheelers in the city.More than 7,600 drunk drivers were booked between January and May 2017. The number of cases reduced to 4,752 in the same period last year and increased again to 6,752 in January-May 2019. Senior police officers said the spike this year could largely be attributed to the echallan project. “With the echallan project taking off well, there has been an increase in cases of all violations,” said an IPS officer. Experts pointed out that enforcement should also be accompanied by a strong mechanism for recovery of e-challans.Data with the traffic police shows more than 1,700 offenders caught this year were aged between 26 and 30 years. In April this year, a 30-year-old television actor, Ruhi Singh, was booked after she rammed her car into nearly half a dozen vehicles in Santacruz while driving drunk. She also had an altercation with Khar police personnel earlier that night. “The 26-30 years age bracket is where one usually draws a stable income and can afford a vehicle as well as access to alcohol,” said urban transport analyst Ashok Datar. “Stricter enforcement is definitely required. Shelling out a fine alone isn’t deterrant enough. The court should make offenders sweep the streets or stations so they feel humiliated and never get behind the wheel when inebriated,” he added.Joint commissioner (traffic) Madhukar Pandey said the police followed a two-pronged approach when dealing with the issue of drunk driving. “The first is to create awareness about the risk involved to lives of other road users. The second is act strongly against offenders. We are already recording cases and sending driving licences of repeat offenders for suspension,” said Pandey.“The traffic department has only around 3,500 personnel who work in all kinds of weather and face various health problems. Ultimately, it is the citizen who has to follow the law” said activist Mohammad Afzal.