kolkata has moved on beyond the pandemic the pains it brought along and the night curfews the citys nocturnal population is back in the bars pubs and clubs partying hard but while the quintessential party animal hasnt changed much in these two years the world has app cab drivers and even bikers have perfected the yellow cabbies art of asking for extra fare and refusing rides and even the police are prosecuting tipsy drivers with a vengeancei had gone to this park street restaurant with my wife and kid roughly a week ago we ordered the food and i had a couple of drinks before dinner was served right after we started for home we were stopped by the police and i had to undergo a breathalyser test i dont even want to get into what happened next but ive promised myself that i wont drink and drive again partha ghosh a sales manager with a multinational packaged food brand told usin fact partha is among the 872 kolkata drivers against whom drinkanddrive cases were registered in the first fortnight of april under section 185 of the motor vehicles actso as the city gets back its nightlife we spoke to a crosssection of partygoers about how they are working around the app cab and other issues we also spoke to kolkata police about their antidrink driving measures read on50 drink driving cases registered dailykolkata police has been extra vigilant since breathalyser tests restarted according to dcp traffic arijit sinha the police carry out breathalyser checks at 50 points across the city every night we register an average of 50 cases daily and the number increases to something between 70 and 80 on weekends he said adding that the highest number of cases are registered in and around park street and loudon streetwhen asked about the app cab refusal issue he said anyone in distress can call the tcr number as well as the 1073 helpline number we help out a large number of commuters daily when it comes to app cabs refusal cases are dealt with under available provisions of the mv actwhy drivers refuse ridesdrivers of app cabs and bike taxis cited a variety of reasons behind their demand for extra fare or refusals we are often fined hefty amounts by the police for plying without commercial licenses but we were never asked to do so by the aggregator when we signed up then theres the fuel price and also the random discounts by the aggregator moreover picking up drunk passengers is often a major hassle not everyone behaves properly with us thats why we often refuse rides said kaushik das a bike taxi rider told us to this sajid ali an app cab driver added the fare often isnt enough to cover our running costs so some cabbies ask for something extranight outs no longer exciting partygoersi usually selfdrive but now i dont after partying at night as the cops have tightened naka checks to curb drink driving