Despite efforts taken by the Police Department with limited resources, public participation in curbing traffic violations is waning. It is evident from the fact that the traffic violation fine dues have crossed a whopping Rs 150 crore mark. Every year it keeps mounting with cops finding themselves helpless. On an average, every year, of the total amount of fine, less than 20 per cent is paid by violators. Rest remains unpaid and police have to approach court for its recovery. Some cases get resolved in Lok Adalat, but not all. “It is a cause of concern that people are not paying the challans whose dues are mounting. One of the violations is of not wearing helmets or not using seatbelt which are for drivers’ safety. We find it very bizarre that we have to impose challan for the sake of drivers’ safety. At least they should take care of themselves,” said Archit Chandak, DCP Traffic. Traffic police, from time to time, conduct special drive to recover the fine andrecover a few lakhs of rupees are recovered.

 

Unfortunately, there is no rule where in after certain challans the license can be cancelled. According to police, Regional Transport Officer can do that. Accepting the fact, Sanjay Bhimanwar, State Transport Commissioner told ‘The Hitavada’, “RTO can cancel the license after even one challan. But the proposal normally should come from police, plus RTO has to justify the action as to why he is canceling the license. The process is a bit complicated.” The violations include not wearing helmet, not using seatbelt, drunk driving, signal jumping, wrong side driving etc. Chandak feels bad when it comes to recovery of dues. “We are less interested in recovering fines. I want people to voluntarily participate in the process of following traffic rules, develop traffic sense. The e-challan system is supporting us while implementing law.

 

Now Nagpur Municipal Corporation is soon implementing Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) by which the challan will be issued if the violators caught by CCTV cameras,” explained Chandak. As per the state statistics this year Mumbai, topped the list of traffic violators. Mumbai is known for its disciplined traffic, still it has most traffic violators followed by Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad, Thane. Nagpur comes on fourth number. But the overall growth in traffic violation is 61%. Collection of traffic fines has, gone down by 9%.

 

 

Maharashtra Government has sent a proposal to Central Government of linking unpaid e-Challans with the bank accounts of vehicle owners. Maharashtra Government is targeting total outstanding which is over Rs 2,000 crore from around 40 million traffic violators. If the bank accounts of the vehicle owners are linked to e-Challan, the amount will be automatically deducted giving no chance to violators of arguing his or her case. Transport Department has sought permission from the Central Government to link e-challans with bank accounts of violators.