Chennai city cops plan drive against defective number plates

Saratkar said that GCTP has termed social media as its fourth eye and on average, it receives and disposes of about 25 tweets per day.

For representational purposes

CHENNAI: Speaking at a press meet held at the Chennai City Police Commissioner’s Office on Thursday, Kapil Kumar C Saratkar, additional commissioner of police, traffic, said special drives will be conducted on Saturday to crack down on defective number plates and first-time violators will be fined Rs 500.

Talking to reporters, Saratkar said social media is helping police in booking violators. He said a total of 1,267 violations were brought to the notice of the Greater Chennai Traffic Police (GCTP) over the last two months through Twitter. Necessary action has been initiated against 90.5% of those complaints.

Saratkar said that GCTP has termed social media as its fourth eye and on average, it receives and disposes of about 25 tweets per day. Similarly, on Facebook, it has 1,01,734 followers and on Instagram, it has 5,256 followers. “We always verify the authenticity of information and forward it to the officers concerned for action,” he said.