Documents of offenders are seized by RTO officials, who make them to attend an audio-video session on road safety, in addition to paying a fine.Are you one of those two-wheeler riders who fight shy of wearing a helmet? If so, you are in for a weekend counselling session should an RTO official spot you riding in the western suburbs.Since last month, officials of the Andheri RTO have hit upon a novel method of forcing riders who shun helmets to mend their erring ways - they compel them to attend a two-hour counselling session on road safety, usually on a Saturday.At the session, offenders are explained the advantages of wearing a helmet, and made to watch an audio-visual. The aim is to open their eyes to the hazards of unsafe riding, and prevent them from repeating the offence.The last session, held on October 4 at the Andheri RTO Office, was attended by more than 50 offenders, including ladies.“Not wearing a helmet is extremely risky. To hammer home the fact of exactly how dangerous it is, we make offenders attend a road safety programme at our office, where we show them audio-video films that depict just how gory the consequences of not wearing a helmet can be. The videos include interviews with accident victims, and also celebrity messages from Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan,” said Deputy RTO Bharat Kalaskar, who is attached to Borivali region.Explaining the modus operandi, Kalaskar said that when their field officers find two-wheeler riders without a helmet, they stop them, seize their documents and issue them a memo on the spot.“On the memo, it is written that the offender will have to attend a counselling session that is usually held on a Saturday and lasts for around two hours. Once the session is over, each participant is given a certificate which they then show at the RTO office along with the memo. Once they pay the relevant fine, the seized documents are returned to them,” Kalaskar said.“So far, we have counselled nearly 200 offenders who have vowed they will never ride without helmets, come what may,” he added.As of now, this method has been implemented only in the western suburbs, but there is need to replicate it across the State, another RTO official said.Section 129 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, makes it mandatory for every person riding a two-wheeler to wear approved protective headgear. Section 177 of the Act specifies that for the first offence, a fine of Rs 100 can be imposed; for a second offence the fine may extend to Rs 300.However, an amended draft of the Motor Vehicles Act, that is to come up in the winter session of Parliament, has proposed a steep fine of Rs 2,500 for first time offenders who do not wear helmets. In fact, the new Act also makes it mandatory for children to wear helmets.Apart from RTO field officers, the Traffic Police too have stepped up their campaign against those not wearing helmets and disobeying traffic rules.“Around 25% of the cases registered by our teams comprise those not wearing helmets and riding against traffic on one-way streets,” Joint Police Commissioner (Traffic) Dr B K Upadhyaya said.“When we come across offending youngsters, we note down their details and counsel them on the spot. But if the person is found committing the same offence again, then we take action. For others, action is taken as per the Motor Vehicles Act by fining them,” he said.