Hyderabad traffic police were shocked after they found out how there has been a huge fall in the number of drunk driving cases being booked against professionals like teachers, doctors, bank and software company employees.
Indian Medical Association dean Dr. P. Pulla Rao said, “It is mainly self-realisation among the fraternity. I started hiring a driver for functions held at night. Many other doctors started doing the same. It sounds very bad if someone says a doctor is a drunkard.”
Dr. B. Bhaskara Rao of Raaga Clinic said "there was a clear message that drunk drivers could not bribe traffic cops and get away. A few doctors have been booked for drunk driving this year but not a single teacher has fallen afoul of the law in 2016."
“If a government employee is in police custody for 48 hours, he or she will be suspended. If convicted, they will lose their job. Teachers generally do not go out partying at nights. The associations have been telling teachers to try and be the role model for students,” TS United Teachers Federation general secretary Ch Ravi said.
A bank employee died in a road accident at Puranapul over a year ago after which bank employees welfare associations gave the call to their members to avoid drunk driving.
Hyderabad Software Employees Association coordinator (corporate social responsibility) Pradeep Gadicherla said: "there were various factors such as IT employees taking cabs and many of them ensuring that a colleague does not drink at parties."
Traffic Training Institute, Goshamahal, inspector M. Srinivasulu said: "though there was a possibility of motorists hiding their real identity, mainly among government, police succeeds in taking the original details of the motorist either at the time of booking or during counseling."
“Traffic cops should change the counseling strategy for those sections whose numbers are increasing in drunk driving cases such as mechanics, painters, technicians, vegetable vendors. Family counseling sessions should be conducted as some people from these sections are highly emotionally. The help of NGOs can be taken to counsel them,” said Dr. S.V. Nagnath, a counseling psychologist at a corporate hospital.
BY M. DIVYA SRI
