With COVID-19 restrictions in place, over 600 people were fined on New Year’s Eve for violations, including drunken and dangerous driving, the police said on Saturday.
According to data shared by Delhi Police, 36 challans were issued for drunk driving, 103 for dangerous driving, 370 for driving without helmet, 48 for triple riding and 100 for other violations.
The total number of challans issued was 657, the police said. This year, an increase of 38% in cases of drunken driving was reported. At least 26 cases were reported on the New Year’s Eve last year.
There was a decrease of 40% in dangerous driving with 174 cases being reported last year.
Overall, however, there was a decrease of 50.8% in the total challans issued this year as the number stood at 1,336 last year. The police said the numbers are less because night curfew has been put in place in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases.
For night curfew violations, the police registered 294 cases of disobedience to order and issued 870 challans for not adhering to COVID-appropriate behaviour from 11 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Saturday.
The police had made elaborate security arrangements on New Year’s Eve to implement the Delhi Disaster Management Authority guidelines.
According to the Delhi government data, 4,997 violations related to COVID-appropriate behaviour were reported on Friday. As many as 4,808 were related to not wearing face masks, the data stated.
