Effective 1st of April, Punjab Police will catch all those who ride on a motorcycle without a helmet. As usual a few newspapers have lauded this move of the police on the same old song of security of the riders. We are a nation who start clapping the hands in praise even without listening to the full sentence what is being said.
A lot of professional columnists and letter writers praised this move of Punjab and Sindh governments. I am not aware of cost of a helmet. For discussion's sake I take it the cost of an international standard specification helmet by reputed manufacturers is say Rs 1000. I understand that there are also some substandard helmets.
When a person buys a costly motorcycle at Rs 40,000 on an average, he can and he should purchase a helmet also. However, many people do not purchase helmets, as traffic police does not take notice of their absence. Those who had previously purchased these helmets do not use them and sell them in exchange of new utensils from street mobile vendors. It must be admitted that helmets are necessary.