Traffic police unveiled a shocking record of Rs 5.61 lakh cases, which is approximately 149% more than the motorists that were booked in 2017 — for breaking the traffic rules in the city between January and November this year.
Last year, the cash induced through penalties for traffic violation was Rs 16.77 crore, which sums up to Rs 4.59 lakh per day. This year up until the end of the November month, the traffic police have managed to generate Rs13.37 crore from the violators which means that the amount collected every day due to the violation of traffic rules is around Rs.4 lakh penalty amount being collected every day. The cops, however, have not yet recovered the fined amount completely.
The cops states that the cases have increased, especially from October 2016 when the city police had introduced the e-challan system. The number of violations that were recorded in year 2015 was Rs 3.56 lakh which has drastically increased to Rs 5.15 lakh in 2016. In May 2018, the number further increased with traffic police introducing CCTV cameras to penalize the violators .A senior office from the department said that “The traffic police have registered a significant number of cases (149%) with the help of closed-circuit television cameras installed at 700 different junctions across the city. Of the 5,61,506 cases, challans have been issued to 3,08,894 violators who have been caught through the CCTV cameras”.
From among the violators who were caught through CCTV cameras, Rs 3.08 lakh motorists paid fine amount of Rs 6.76 crore. Even after taking numerous precautions, the cases have increased manifold, the traffic police is still struggling to recover the fine amount from the violators who have been issued e-challans.
The total number of cases that were booked in this year was Rs5.61 lakh, and the one which topped the list was helmet less riding with 3,13,098 cases. The other common rules which are been violated on day to day basis are: rider crossing stop line; driving on the wrong side (20,929 cases), not wearing seat belt (19,613 cases) and breaking traffic signal (17,407 cases).
The amount of violations that actually occur on the roads are usually higher than those who are caught by the traffic police, sources said that the working hours of cops’ are from 9 am to 7 pm. The work routine in Command Control Centre in Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s headquarters in Civil Lines is similar to that of the traffic police.
The data from the cops also revealed that motorists of Cotton Market zone that also includes the areas like Central Avenue, Cotton Market, etc., violate traffic rules the most. This can be observed from the fact that traffic police booked 1.22 lakh motorists during the period in question. In West Nagpur too motorist have became infamous in violating of traffic rules and regulations, Sitabuldi zone’s traffic police have issued challans to 1.13 lakh motorists.
Motorists in North Nagpur, which comes under Indora zone, are not lacking in violating the traffic rules as 1,06 lakh motorists were charged in last 11 months.
The traffic experts said, “It seems the traffic police are completely ignoring more serious offences like signal jumping, over speeding, rash driving, wrong side driving, talking on mobile phone and driving at night with headlamps on high beam,” Even though the number of challans have been amplified with the help of CCTV cameras.
When a person drives for minimum for 30 minutes through the main thoroughfares, he or she observes at least 20 or more traffic violations, some being extremely dangerous for one’s life. And especially from evening onwards, when the CCTV cameras are non-functional for a major part of the rime when breach of traffic rules is at its peak.
As per the traffic experts, they don’t see any change in the behaviour of motorists’ on roads in the city. Experts pointed out that majority of the drivers do not mind paying hefty fines after being caught by traffic police,
Lawyer and retired additional Director General GSI Dr Anjan Chatterjee said, “Whereas, the law has provision for harsher punitive measures for repeated offences including suspension and cancellation of driving licences and imprisonment,” he pointed out. According to him the Motor Vehicle Act 1988 and the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 have been around for more than 30 years, and yet, there is no device to detect a grave traffic offence that has been committed by the violator for more than one time.
The high court has paid heed to the fact that the intervention petition filed by Chatterjee and has directed the Secretary of Union Ministry of Road Transport and Shipping to file an affidavit.
Swamp of new motor vehicles and a majority of drivers preferring to violate traffic rules create a mess. The fines are in dire needs to be enhanced to a minimum of Rs 3000 to Rs 5000 and more, as from Rs 200, Rs 500 and rarely Rs 1000 fines are negligible for the most and they get away easily by paying such amount after being issued by the CCTV generated e-challan.
