HYDERABAD: Ministers and senior government officials may have been called out on social media for non-payment of traffic challans issued to them. However, common citizens are no better when it comes to clearing the dues. Close to 22,896 people have been chargesheeted for non-payment of fines across the three commissionerate in the last six months.
The police officials have been filing chargesheets whenever the number of challans goes beyond 15 and the owner of the vehicle fails to clear the same for a prolonged period.
According to data provided by the officials, the most number of chargesheet cases were booked for non-payment of challan in Hyderabad Traffic police limits, with over 12,580 cases booked. This was followed by Cyberabad where 9,694 cases were booked. Rachakonda traffic police limits saw 622 chargesheet cases.
“These cases are booked when we do random checks on vehicles plying on the road. The traffic police checks the number of challans pending against the vehicle. If it is under 10 challans, we persuade them to pay it off at the nearest payment gateway or by using the apps available online. If they are in the bracket of top violator then we seize the vehicle,” noted a senior official.
The traffic officials across three commissionerates book close to 10,000 violations on a daily basis. Furthermore, of these 22,896 chargesheet cases, only 19,427 were actually paid up for by the citizens. The accumulated penalty amount from these chargesheet cases is now close to Rs 1.98 crore across the three commissionerates. The actual penalty amount yet to be recovered runs into crores.
Meanwhile, senior officers said that the proposed amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act tabled in the Parliament is a welcome move as the fine for several traffic violations will be hiked. For instance, the penalty for rash driving will be increased from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000, for drunk driving from Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000, while minor driving will fetch cancellation of registration of the vehicle.