PANAJI: Goa police statistics shows that 7.7 lakh traffic violators were prosecuted and collected fines totalling Rs 9.2 crore, in 2018. Director general of police (DGP) Muktesh Chander said the focus of the increased prosecution was reduction of number of accidents and increased road safety, and that the state, in 2018, saw the lowest deaths due to road accident in the last 15 years.Goa has a population of around 15 lakh and challans were issued to, besides locals, also visitors to the state. Police sources said that one person could have been issued four challans for different traffic violations.Speaking to reporters, director general of police (DGP) Muktesh Chander said that there has been a significant increase of 48% in prosecution of traffic offenders as compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. “Notably, Goa police prosecuted 7,74,578 traffic violators in 2018 and collected fines amounting to Rs 9,19,15,500. The previous year, 5,22,355 cases were booked for the corresponding period and a fine of Rs 6,40,80,250 was collected,” he said.C hander said the focus of prosecution was to reduce accidents and increase road safety.Statistics revealed that in 2018, 262 people died in road accidents compared to 328 people in 2017.Every year, till 2017, one person died in a road accident every 30 hours.He also said that an amalgam of careful causal analysis of road accidents, quality prosecution, modification in road engineering, massive education and awareness drive, punitive action against drunken drivers and other traffic offenders led to a reduction in accident-related fatalities by 20%.The DGP said that 19,683 licences were seized and forwarded to the transport department for suspension, of which 4,325 were suspended.When asked, the tourism industry said police harassing tourists was a reason for decreased footfalls.“Traffic violations are committed by resident as also by tourist, including foreigners. Nowhere is it stated that foreigners are exempted from the Motor Vehicle Act. Everybody has to follow the law,” Chander said, adding that there was no question of harassment.“People should obey traffic rules. That is all. Nobody will harass them and if there were specific complaints of malpractice or harassment, then we would have looked into that. Stop blaming police for implementing traffic laws. Saying tourists are running away from the state because of police is absurd,” he said.

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