New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS): Despite 15,954 drunken driving prosecutions this year, the maximum in the last ten years, Delhi Police Wednesday said that the number of violations had dropped drastically due to stepped up checking and prosecutions.

"Till Nov 30, we have prosecuted 15,954 violators for drunk driving. About 2,756 of them have been awarded jail terms and driving licenses of 2,139 have been suspended. More than 5,000 cases are still under trial," Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic)Satyendra Garg posted on Facebook page of the force which has more than 90,000 followers.

"Drunken driving has come down drastically. To get more cases, vehicle checking has been increased and are conducted three to four times every week," added Garg.

Further clarifying his stand on the drop in cases, Garg said that earlier 280 to 300 violators were prosecuted during a routine check but now the numbers have reduced to 130-140.

According to the data posted by Garg in September this year, 689 people were prosecuted for drunken driving in 2000 and the figure doubled to 1,545 in 2001. It further rose to 2,464 in 2002 and 2,793 in 2003.

There was a marginal drop in 2004 when the figure was 2,664, but it again went up to 3,551 in 2005 and to 4,286 in 2006.

A slight dip was witnessed again in 2007 with 4,192 cases, but it again shot up and doubled in 2008 with 8,296 drunken driving cases. In 2009, there were 12,784 prosecutions and the figure was 11,388 last year.