CUTTACK: A 65-year-old resident of the city has been running from pillar to post to get an e-challan wrongly issued to him by Jagatsinghpur traffic police for violation of road safety rules removed.
Omission of a single digit in the vehicle number due to a typing error on part of Jagatsinghpur police has landed Sumeet Sen of Ranihat in trouble as he has been imposed a fine of Rs 4,500 for violation of Motor Vehicle Act-1988.
The erroneous challan was issued to him on January 18. Since then, Sen hasn’t been able to travel in his own vehicle on roads having toll gates as it would be impounded.
As per the e-challan, the place of infraction was Paradip Port Circle. The vehicle involved as shown in the photograph attached with the challan clearly shows it as a commercial one with OD05BT 9595 registration number.
Sen, on the other hand, owns a Maruti Wagon R car with registration number OD05T 9595. The police staff while filling up the violation report omitted the B in the registration number as a result of which Sen has been forced to pay the price.
He has been imposed fine of Rs 500 under section 177, Rs 2,000 for violation of section-179(1) and another Rs 2,000 under section 179(2) of the Motor Vehicle Act-1988.
“It is strange how the traffic police issued the challan to me without verifying the vehicle registration number on the infringement report. I have been knocking the door of the Traffic police station, Cuttack and RTO office over the issue but to no avail. I even contacted the helpline number of the State Transport Authority and as per their suggestion, sent a mail requesting them to rectify the error but have not received any response as yet,” he said.
Sen’s plight, however, is not an isolated one. There have been increasing cases of this nature where erroneous e-challans are putting citizens in trouble for no fault of theirs.
Deputy commissioner of Transport, Central Zone Biranchi Narayan Adhikari, who is now in-charge of Cuttack RTO, said, “It is a typing error. The wrong e-challan would be rectified once the owner of the vehicle files a complaint in this regard with the issuing authority concerned.”