TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: The dramatic exploit of nine bike-borne legislators, including a Cabinet minister, who rode their dream machines into State Legislative Assembly without helmets Friday, will be inquired into by the Traffic Department.
This means, the MLAs can avoid paying fine till the completion of the inquiry, of course, until the government orders them to pay the penalty.
“I will call for a report (from the Mapusa traffic cell),” a senior officer told Herald. The departments concerned ~ Traffic and RTO ~ have refrained from taking immediate action, since it involves the elected members of the Legislative Assembly.
Ironically, though authorities doubt that the nine MLAs ~ eight of them first timers – Glenn Ticlo, Pramod Sawant, Michael Lobo, Nilesh Cabral, Carlos Almeida, Fisheries Minister and Independent legislator Avertano Furtado, two other Independents Rohan Khaunte and Naresh Sawal and Goa Vikas Party MLA Francisco ‘Mickky’ Pacheco ~ were not wearing helmets.
“We don’t know whether they really did not wear helmets, which route they came from and whether they crossed the national highway, where wearing of helmet is mandatory,” the officer said adding an interesting twist to the whole story. “We will examine the whole episode and based on the inquiry report appropriate action will be taken,” he said.
The vehicular traffic during the Assembly Session is mostly handled by the Panjim and Mapusa traffic cells. While the Mapusa traffic PI Salim Sheikh, as told by his office, is on leave, Panjim traffic inspector Dharmesh Angle told Herald that on Friday they were more focused on regulation than enforcement.
“Panjim traffic personnel are deputed till the KTC and from Malim onwards it is handled by the Mapusa traffic cell. Since on Friday the traffic flow was heavy, we increased our staff but our major focus was regulation,” Angle said.
The gross traffic violation by the legislators also shows the inefficiency by the RTO officials as none were posted near the Assembly on Friday morning. Or perhaps, they deliberately avoided being seen as the RTO officials began issuing challans to other traffic violators only after the legislators ~ five riders and four pillions ~ got inside the Assembly complex flaunting their Harleys and Enfield Bullets.
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