Fear of violence deters some from enforcing 'No Helmet No Petrol' rule in Kolkata pumps

Following the direction of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to stop selling petrol to the helmetless bikers, Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar on July 9 ordered a rule of No Helmet No Petrol within the city limits.

Publishing a notification with an immediate effect, police stated that no petrol pump within the jurisdiction of Kolkata Police could sell fuel to a biker, who came to the petrol pump riding a two wheeler without helmet as well as carried bike's pillion rider without helmet.

Besides, Kolkata Police have restricted two wheelers' movement on three busy flyovers- Maa Flyover (Connecting Park Circus-EM Bypass), AJC Bose Road Flyover and Park Street- in the city from 10 pm. to 6 am. on all days.

However, what was seen during these three days that a large number of petrol pumps as well as two wheeler riders had started following the guidelines of Kolkata Police, while several others are ignoring it.

IBNS team on Tuesday (Jul 12) visited several petrol pumps in Kolkata to notice how the newly imposed rule was being obeyed or followed.

However, what we noticed during our coverage are following-

Scene-1 : Place- Park Street : Time- 10:00 am.

During peak hours on the first day of a week, we went to a petrol pump at Park Street area. One after another bikers entered the pump, wearing helmets, and refueled their bikes smoothly.

One bike rider told IBNS, "Since I have started riding a bike,  I am wearing helmet for my safety. Our government has imposed this rule for our welfare."

Scene-2 : Place- Chandni Chowk : Time- 11:00 am.

After Park Street, we visited a petrol pump at Central Avenue near Chandni Chowk metro station. As the place is very close to city's downtown Esplanade area, police observation is very strict here. We noticed almost same thing here.

"After being informed about the No Helmet No Petrol rule, we are selling petrol to those bikers who are riding their bikes wearing helmet. We had to face very few difficulties here. Few riders came without helmet to buy fuel. We refused them to sell and advised to come, wearing helmet, next time," one staff of the petrol pump told IBNS.

Scene-3 : Place- Park Circus : Time- 02:00 pm.

Our next destination was Park Circus area, which is very crowded. When we visited a petrol pump there, we noticed that few helmetless youth bikers were buying petrol normally, without facing any obstacle.

When we asked a staffer of the petrol pump about that, he replied, "They are local boys. If we prevent them from buying petrol, they could vandalize our pump. We will request police to provide us security so that we can follow the rule."

Scene-4 : Place- Sealdah : Time- 03:00 pm.

Next, we went to another petrol pump at Sealdah area in north Kolkata. Besides bikers with helmet, we saw few two wheeler riders were buying petrol from from the pump and leaving the area smoothly.

When was asked about that, a petrol pump staff told IBNS, "Oops! Sorry! I forgot the new rule. Actually, it's just implemented. I need few days more to be habituated with it."

Scene-5 : Place- Tollygunge : Time- 4:30 pm.

Later we visited another petrol refueling station in south Kolkata's Tollygunge area. We found everything normal and very smooth there.

"All bikers are coming with helmet here. So we are not facing any trouble," one staffer of the station told us with smile.

Scene-6 : Place- Kidderpore : Time- 6:00 pm.

Our next destination was Kidderpore, which area is well-known for reckless riding. We visited as many as five petrol pumps here. Few petrol pumps played very strict rule against reckless and helmetless bikers. But rest of the pumps were seen pampering the two wheeler riders without helmet.

We also noticed that using one helmet, at least six bikers refueled their bikes.

However, during our survey, we spotted mixed effects to the rule and got mixed reactions on the new stricture.

One senior police official of Kolkata Police told IBNS, "We believe our mission will be successful. Number of bike crashes will be reduced by this rule. We are strengthening our observations to take care of No Helmet No Petrol formula. We are observing several petrol pumps in the city to see if the rule is being followed or not."

"We have received few complaints from petrol pump dealers' associations and petrol pump owns as well. They complained that helmetless bikers were forcing them to sell petrol and threatening petrol pump staffers as well. We will take steps against them very soon. We are ready to help them, who are following police's guidelines and helping us. We need everybody's cooperation and participation," he added.

A Kolkata petrol pump

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha, Images by Avishek Mitra/IBNS)