Great initiative: No helmet, then no fuel

Hyderabad: From now, no more fuel for commuters without helmets at petrol stations managed by Jail department in Telangana state, said the director general of prisons, V.K. Singh.

Speaking to the media, he said that Telangana state has 13 petrol stations managed by the prisons department and 8 more to come, all of which will be embraced under this permanent order.

"We have petrol pumps at Khammam, Warangal, Adilabad, Nalgonda, Karimnagar and Mahabubnagar, among other areas, where we are however to issue orders not to provide fuel to those who ride without helmets," said the official.

The move is said to be taken to rigorously enforce the helmet rule among the commuters, which again is for their own safety. If charge invoked, this is a very good move by the government, said M. Vinod Kanumula, chief functionary of the Indian Federation of Road Safety.

"When the uniformed men were helpless to clampdown on vehiclists without helmets, it is to be seen how this move will yield. It is a good start and it would be of much help if the same could be accomplished on city roads as well," he said.

On Sunday, a youth riding without a helmet was killed on the spot due to head injuries when his bike hit a roadside stone at Maheshwaram. Accidents of riders driving without a helmet have even made the public take get-up-and-go to cut down the number of disasters.

A village youth of Nizamabad district came up with the idea of buying helmets and lending it to villagers, free of cost, whenever they use their two-wheelers. The selfless move by the youth is said to have shortened the road accident debacles, according to the villagers.