Man pays small change as fine for not wearing helmet

AHMEDABAD: Umang Shah is just a block printer, but when he rides on the city roads, the traffic police scurries for
cover.

Shah, a maverick of sorts has paid a fine of around Rs 5,000 to the cops for not wearing a helmet - all in the smallest of change!

His family, which lives in the Khadia area of the Walled city, barring his son, strictly breaks the helmet rule, since it was enforced.

They feel that the rule is a kind of harassment.

Call it a Gandhigiri of sorts, but whenever the traffic police stops the Shahs, not only do they readily pay up the
fine but also give chocolates to the police.

Shah has become so popular or the police so fed-up with him that they have stopped collecting fines from them.

In the beginning, whenever the police detained him, Shah would pay the fine of Rs 50 in one-rupee coins. The police first got irritated, but they accepted the money.

Thus, Shah paid up almost Rs 500 as fine in Re-1 coins. Then, he paid up another Rs 500 in 50-paise coins.

However, he never lost his cool and told the cops he would never follow the rule.

Now all the traffic cops know him.

Recently, Shah changed the fine to denominations of 25 paise. If the police stopped him, he would hand a heavy pouch of 200 25-paise coins over to them.

"At first, they fought with me. I called up the police control room right there and told them that I was paying the fine in a currency that is in circulation, so you cannot refuse", he says.

When additional commissioner of police Vikas Sahay heard of this, he told his men that they were bound to accept the change, how much ever small.

Shah religiously goes to the RBI every month and replenishes his stock of change.

The problem for the police is that it takes nearly 30 minutes to count these 200 coins.

"I will pay even up to Rs 25,000 but won't wear the helmet," he says. "I ride at only 20 kmph and that too within the city. Besides, it's my head and my life," he said when TOI caught up with him at one such crossing.

( This is a true story which has been published in Times of India dated 20 Jul 2008.)


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New initiative of Govt of India .......(Very Informative !!! )

Government of India has an online Grievance forum at http://pgportal.gov.in

Can you imagine this is happening in INDIA ?

The govt. wants people to use this tool to highlight the problems they faced while dealing with Government officials or departments like


1) Railways
2) Posts
3) Telecom (incl. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) & Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL )
4) Urban Development ( Delhi Development Authority (DDA) , Land & Development Office (L and DO) , Central Public Works Department (CPWD) , etc)
5) Petroleum & Natural Gas
6) Civil Aviation ( Air India , Airports Authority of India , etc)
7) Shipping , Road Transport & Highways
8) Tourism
9) Public Sector Banks
10) Public Sector Insurance Companies
11) National Saving Scheme of Ministry of Finance
12) Employees' Provident Fund Organization
13) Regional Passport Authorities
14) Central Government Health Scheme
15) Central Board of Secondary Education
16) Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan
17) National Institute of Open Schooling
18) Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti
19) Central Universities
20) ESI Hospitals and Dispensaries directly controlled by ESI Corporation under Ministry of Labour



Many of us say that these things don't work in India .

Couple of months back, the Faridabad Municipal Corporation laid new roads in his area and the residents were very happy about it. But 2 weeks later, BSNL dug up the newly laid roads to install new cables which annoyed all the residents.. A resident used the above listed grievance forum to highlight his concern.. To his surprise, BSNL and Municipal Corporation of Faridabad were served a show cause notice and the guy received a copy of the notice in one week. Government has asked the MC and BSNL about the goof up as it's clear that both the government departments were not in sync at all.

So use this grievance forum and educate others who don't know about this facility.
This way we can at least raise our concerns instead of just talking about the 'System' in India .

Invite your friends to contribute for many such happenings.



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