HYDERABAD: You may have not noticed Rs 35 which is printed as user charge on your e-challan which you receive for a traffic violation and where it is going. Considering the number of challans the traffic police issue, which is about three lakh per day in the state, the amount works out to be quite huge. The practice of collecting the user charge has been in force since 2007.
Of the Rs 35 you pay, Rs 5 will go to eSeva centre and payment gateways for processing payments, Rs 15 to Postal Department which delivers challans to the violators, Rs 10 to the Police Department which is sent to the government and Rs 5 goes to Telangana State Technology Services.
Levying user charges deter people from violating traffic rules, say police
DCP Traffic MS Vijay Kumar, Cyberabad stated: “The e-challan system is time-tested. Portals like Parivahan which does not levy any user charges are under study. For a decade, the citizens are supporting the user charges.”
“Levying user charges will deter them from committing violations in future. The IT service comes at a certain cost. In spot challaning, 10 violators of traffic rules escape while we are busying challaning one violator. The e-challan system is a better way and understandably, it comes at a price,” said another police official.
The officer added, “This system of e-challan is better because a camera is a strict disciplinarian. These are curbing violations,” he said.
But the Twitterati is not kind to the Telangana Police Department. Tagging traffic police and DGP, activist Vijay Gopal tweeted, “TS police is using illegal e-challan website while you are obligated to use the Parivahan team portal to levy and collect challan and then collecting Rs 35 extra from people, why? (sic)”
He also tagged Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Telangana Governor Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan in the post.