TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Non-government organizations and citizens from South Goa strongly objected to the mandatory-helmet rule in Goa and demanded its immediate relaxation for “the betterment of society”. They also wrote to Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar to scrap the rule on all internal roads.
The NGOs complained that traffic police regularly harassed parents for not wearing helmets even while travelling within the city to pick up and drop their kids. The traffic police stand near the wholesale fish market and on roads leading to schools as early as 7.30 am. The fish market road is 180 to 200 meters. The NGO’s questioned the need for a helmet there when people couldn’t drive beyond 30 km/h.
The NGOs also conducted a signature campaign to get a sense of what the people felt about the rule. Most of the people opposed it. The NGOs have already written to the transport minister, transport director and chief minister in the past to scrap the rule.
