Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
Police on toes to check drunk drivers, ensure peaceful Holi
NAVI MUMBAI: Due to heavy bondabast and adequate precautionary measures taken by the Navi Mumbai police, the satellite city witnessed a peaceful Holi celebration on Thursday.
Residents of various communities celebrated the festival in their own traditional ways across the city but no untoward incident was reported anywhere till late in the evening.
Police teams were deployed at all important junctions and also on the arterial roads to nab the errant motorists. “All police stations were alerted to keep a tab on their respective jurisdiction specifically in the sensitive areas, if they had. Every police station had at least five patrolling teams and they kept reporting to one senior officer. There were few minor quarrels at some places, but we did not register any case,” said Suresh Mengade, deputy commissioner police (special branch).
Even though the traffic department paid special attention to the drunk drivers, the number of such cases was negligible. “There was hardly any private vehicle on roads till afternoon. We did not find any drunk driver during the celebrations,” said Sirish Pawar, traffic head of Vashi division.
Holi was celebrated with enthusiasm in areas such as Kharghar, Kamothe, Khandeshwar, Kalamboli and Panvel.
Balasaheb Gade, traffic head of Panvel, said, “People came to roads to play Holi in large numbers, but they did not flout the norms. Our officers paid attention to the safety of the motorists. But. they did not register any drink driving or rash driving case.”
Apart from nakabandis and beat marshal teams, the police also kept a reserved force at every police station for handling the emergency cases. “In our area we had equal crowds on the roads and public places as we used to see in the previous years. Fortunately, the entire jurisdiction went calm and quiet and no criminal case was registered at any police station,” said one officer from city (zone II).
The railway police had started the drive three days ago.
Nitin Bobade, senior police inspector of Vashi GRP said, “Our officials were roaming on the platforms as well as on the tracks to make sure that no one throws water balloons at moving trains. RPF officials also helped us in this drive throughout the festival.”