KOCHI: It may sound like a joke. The fact is the Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) has not initiated any action against traffic rule violators, especially autorickshaw drivers, for the past three months, for want of funds to buy postal stamps.
The police data accessed by ‘City Express’ revealed that the police booked several auto drivers in the city for violating traffic rules till April this year, but the MVD could not take any action as there were no postal stamps with them to send summons to the offenders.
As per the data with the police from January 1 to April 1, the City Police booked 247 auto drivers for various traffic offences, including those concerning fare meters.
The Traffic West Police Station had sent 136 recommendations to the Motor Vehicle Department for suspending the licence of autorickshaw drivers while the Traffic East Police Station recommended suspension of licences of 111 autorickshaw drivers.
“However, despite the large number of recommendations pending before the Department, not even a single licence has been suspended so far. Even though frequent requests were made, no action has been taken. Later, officials with the MVD said they did not have postal stamps to send summons to the offenders,” police officials said.
B J Antony, Ernakulam Regional Transport Officer, admitted that the lack of funds for stamps hindered them from sending the summons through post.
However, the issue was rectified a week ago and the department has started sending summons to the offenders.
“This year, only `10,000 was allotted for purchasing postal stamps. We require at least `1.5 lakh annually for purchasing them and we were unable to send any summons for the past three months. Now that funds have been allotted, the summons will be sent to the traffic offenders in the coming days,” he said.
He said it takes around one month to take action against people caught for traffic violations. After sending summons, hearing is conducted to decide whether the licence has to be cancelled or not.