BENGALURU: One of the early birds to avail of the 50 per cent discount on traffic fines offered by the state government was the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), which has paid Rs 33 lakh in fines. Among the major traffic violations by the BMTC buses include 12,000 signal jumps and haphazard parking, fines of which totalled to Rs 66 lakhs.
Confirming that the BMTC has paid a fine of Rs 33 lakh, BMTC MD Satyavathi said the fines were majorly pertaining to signal jumps and illegal parking. “We have paid Rs 33 lakh in fine. The fine amount was paid after recovering the same from the BMTC drivers who committed the violations,” he said. Satyavathi added that the amount was deducted from the driver’s salaries as a deterrent to prevent them from committing traffic violations in the future.
The state government had ordered that a flat 50 per cent discount on traffic violations on February 2, to be valid only till February 11th initially. The discount was reimplemented on March 4 and will extend till March 18.
While the traffic police personnel routinely apprehend cabs, bikes and other vehicles, if they spot a visible violation like over-speeding, reckless driving and signal jumps, government buses are not stopped as it could cause inconvenience to the passengers commuting in the bus. The traffic police maintain that slapping fines on BMTC buses is the only option they have.