COIMBATORE: Despite using automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, which detect a wide range of traffic offences and issue e-challan to violators, police personnel are going soft on some traffic violations.
In 2019, police fixed ANPR cameras with the support of Uyir, an NGO, at 20 junctions in the city. Due to flyover construction, the cameras currently are operational only in seven locations. According to senior police officers, the chaos on roads caused by the on-going infrastructure process is proving to be a big challenge to motorists.
The ANPR system is adding to their stress as they are penalised for even mild violations. To avoid many people being fined by the automated system, police personnel have started to manually cross-check the violations recorded by the ANPR cameras before issuing a challan. Hence a majority of violations recorded by the ANPR cameras go unpunished.
"We cannot enforce or penalize some practices even if they are violations as per law. We do not impose fines for all violations recorded by the automated camera," said a senior police officer. "For example, it is mandatory for bikers and pillion riders to wear helmets. But it is not strictly enforced in the city. We advise those who ride bikes must wear helmets. If we force all including pillion riders it will become a tough task. Due to this, we do not force pillion riders to wear helmets. Though it is mandated by law, we go easy on implementing it," he said
ANPR cameras record all violations and most of them are related to non-wearing helmets by pillion riders, according to the officer. "If someone offers lift to a stranger, it would not be possible for the pillion rider to wear a helmet. The ANPR camera lists it as an offence and imposes fine on the vehicle owner. Many people in Coimbatore receive online challan for taking pillion riders without helmets. So we have deployed a team to cross-check the violations recorded by the ANPR cameras before generating e-challans for fine," the officer added.
Also, police sources said fines are not imposed on vehicles that are not linked to the owner's mobile numbers. Explaining the difficulty, an officer said, if someone does not link his mobile number with vehicle registration, we cannot issue e-challan. Identifying the vehicle owner and tracing his location is tough. Though it was recorded by ANPR cameras we are avoiding generating challans to the vehicles which do not have the proper mobile numbers. We plan to tweak the feed to the ANPR system to avoid such difficulties, the officer added.
The police action has attracted criticism from road safety activists. "Not imposing a fine for pillion riders not wearing helmets is acceptable. Most of them are women and children and in many cases, riders allow pillion riders on humanitarian grounds. Hence police should modify the program of the ANPR system. Instead, they should find solutions to prevent offences like drunk and drive and rash driving. As for non-linking mobile numbers with vehicle registration, police should take action against them with the help of RTOs. They can let them go to avoid workload. But if they commit any offence, it will become a serious issue,” said CM Jayaraman, President of Citizens Voice Coimbatore.