Sonepur: The district administration on Tuesday convened a meeting of petrol-pump owners and asked them to strictly comply with the order of not selling petrol to bikers without helmet.

The administration has come under severe criticism for violation of its February 7 order that made helmets mandatory for motorcyclists. The order also asked pump-owners not sell petrol to anyone without helmet.

Sonepur district collector Dasarathi Satapathy expressed concern over non-co-operation by the petrol pump owners. He said: "It is a Supreme Court order that we are implementing to protect the life and property of people. Unfortunately, the pump owners are not cooperating and openly violating the order... This defeats the very purpose of the helmet rule."

The collector asked the pump owners to cooperate and warned them that action would be taken against those who violate the order.

"Due to the effort of the transport officials and police, the people have become aware and many are wearing helmets. But the pump owners are playing spoilsport. This will not be tolerated any more. Those who are found selling petrol to people without helmets will face action," he said.

The collector also asked all the pump owners of the district to construct lavatories for both men and women at the pumps by the end of this month.

Some pump-owners said scuffles had ensued when they had denied petrol to customers for not wearing helmets. Sonepur police superintendent Prafulla Patra said the pump owners shouldn't worry about it.

"All the 23 petrol pumps will have the phone numbers of the concern police inspectors, the SP and the collector. They can make a call to report any such incident," Patra said.