If you’re a biker in Bengaluru and like to flaunt your newly acquired silencer that makes your neighbour wish he were deaf, you’re in for a loss. The Bengaluru Traffic Police have started a drive to seize and destroy silencers fitted on bikes, especially those on Royal Enfields.
The traffic police have seized over 1,150 silencers in a period of just three days after they received scores of complaints of the noise pollution. This is not the first time they’re seizing and destroying silencers. Last year, over 5,000 cases were booked and in 2016, the number was nearly 2,000. However, this year, the cops are not slapping the usual Rs 100 fine which, more or less, do not deter bikers from installing silencers. Now they’re taking help of a more stringent law that has a provision of fine of up to Rs 2,000.
Section 190(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act states,
“Any person who drives or causes or allows to be driven, in any public place a motor vehicle, which violates the standards prescribed in relation to road safety, control of noise and air-pollution, shall be punishable for the first offence with a fine of one thousand rupees and for any second or subsequent offence with a fine of two thousand rupees.”
However, bikers are not quite amused by the traffic police’s step of mostly seizing Royal Enfields and not other kinds of bikes which come with an in-built silencer. Nikhith Thomas wrote on Bengaluru traffic police’s Facebook page:
“Bengaluru police, agreed that you are focused on catching Royal Enfields with modified silencers, but why aren’t you catching the Harley Davidson, triumph, KTM bikes who are equally noisy with company silencers? A simple 100cc Yamaha RX 100 motorcycle with no mufflers can cause more noise pollution than your accepted pollution norms. Make rules that are equal to everyone please!”
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