By PTI
GUWAHATI: For the first time in the city there was no road accident on the night of ‘Uruka’ (the first day of Magh Bihu festival) and New Year’s eve when people go out of their homes with their families and friends to join in the festivities due to the various initiatives taken by the police, Guwahati police commissioner Harmeet Singh said on Saturday.
Singh told PTI that there was “absolutely no accident at all”. “We have been working on two aspects for the people — their ease and safety while travelling on the city’s roads. For that, we made people aware as well as enforced the law strictly as per Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s instructions,” he added.
Magh Bihu, also called Bhogali Bihu, is a festival marking the end of harvesting season in the Assamese month of Puh (December-January). The feasting during the festival lasts for almost a week, beginning on Uruka which is one day prior to Sankranti. The Uruka night this year was on January 13.
The city had witnessed two accidents on the Uruka night in 2021 in which three persons were injured, while in 2020 there were three accidents in the city on the festival night which claimed one life and left another injured, official data said.
On December 31 of 2020 and January 1 of 2021, a total 15 accidents had taken place which left three dead and 11 wounded, according to police records. During the New Year’s eve in 2019-20 seven people had died and five others were injured in 13 accidents in Guwahati, according to the data.
“Most of the accidents on the nights of December 31 and Jqanuary 1 used to take place due to drunken driving. This resulted in a number of fatal accidents. This time, we had vowed not to allow any accident on Guwahati roads and we have been successful,” Singh said.
There were, however, a number of traffic rule violations. “We registered 48 drunken driving cases, 58 without helmets and 22 for not wearing seatbelts on Uruka day. In total, there were 596 cases of violations of traffic laws on a single day,” he said.
The city police issued challans of Rs 11.52 crore on January 13 (Uruka day) this year. “In December we collected fines of more than Rs 4.5 crore. During the last four months, our average monthly fine collection has been over Rs 3 crore,” the police commissioner said.
