Patna: A local district administration in Bihar has made it mandatory for bikers to use helmets in order to get petrol from fuel outlets. The move is aimed at checking the alarming rise in road accidents.
The order has been issued by the district authorities in Vaishali, a central Bihar district close to the capital city of Bihar.
“We have enforced a ban on sale of petrol to the bikers using no helmets. This will obviously check the number of road accidents as we have noticed 90 per cent of casualties were bikers,” Vaishali district magistrate Rachna Patil told the media on Sunday.
Patil who is the executive head of the district said she was holding a meeting with the office-bearers of petroleum retailers and others for wider consultation on the proposed move to strictly implement the ban to save precious lives. As per a rough estimate, the Vaishali district has 100,000 bikers.
The ban order comes amid the claim by the state government that the road accident deaths in Bihar has come down by 31 per cent post the enforcement of total prohibition in Bihar in April last year.
“Road accidents have come down by 19 per cent from April 1 to November 30 in Bihar after liquor ban. Deaths due to road accidents have declined by 31 per cent during the period,” Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar told a rally in Sasaram in Rohtas district in December last year.
Many say the incidents of road accidents in Bihar registered an alarming rise due to smooth and modern roads in the state which led to people speeding. Kumar’s first priority has been to improve the condition of roads after he came to power in the state in 2005.
Before that, Bihar was had a huge market for auto parts due to huge demand from vehicle-owners due to potholed roads that dotted the state. In the current scenario, however, Bihar has emerged as the centre of car showrooms as people love to drive on the modern roads.
