Ever since the transport ministry has amended the Motor Vehicles Act and revised fine amounts, breaking traffic rules has become an expensive sin. Bizarre cases like a car driver fined for not wearing a helmet and a rider who set his bike ablaze after getting fined for not wearing a helmet have come to light.
Adding to list, here’s another weird incident from Muzzafarpur in Bihar where an auto driver was fined for not wearing a ‘seat belt’.
You read it right! And, we all know that there’s no seat belt in an autorickshaw.
According to MVA, you receive a challan of Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 for driving without a seat belt (a four-wheeler, of course). But the auto driver wasn’t financially sound and could not pay a hefty fine. So the cops imposed the lowest penalty of Rs.1000 on him.
Ajay Kumar, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Saraiya, India Today,
“The auto driver was asked to pay a minimum challan, which was, for not wearing a seat belt as he was an extremely poor man. So, he was asked to pay Rs 1,000 only. In order to impose the minimum penalty amount, he was imposed with the lowest challan amount. This was a mistake but it was done just to impose a minimum penalty on the driver.”