Traffic danda rakes in moolah for Gujarat cops

  • | Friday | 16th November, 2018

Sudhir Desai, DCP, traffic said, “In 2017, we collected Rs 9.87 crore in 8,47,754 spot cases. Cops towed 78,322 vehicles till September collecting 1.84 crore fine as against 43,383 cases filed in 2017 which fetched Rs 47.98 lakh as revenue in fine. AHMEDABAD: Decongested roads and comparatively well-behaved traffic in the city has come at a heavy price for Amdavadis -- Rs 13 crore and still paying up! As many offenders faulted on multiple counts, the fines multiplied," says DCP, traffic (west) Sanjay Kharat.Additional Commissioner of Police, traffic, JR Mothaliya, acknowledged that Gujarat HC rulings pushed cops to crack the whip and intensify drive against traffic offenders.Higher fine collection is a by-product of the intensive joint drive undertaken by traffic police and local cops to discipline traffic in city. "Apart from towing of vehicles, not wearing helmet, seat belt and jumping signal constituted nearly 70% traffic violation cases.

AHMEDABAD: Decongested roads and comparatively well-behaved traffic in the city has come at a heavy price for Amdavadis -- Rs 13 crore and still paying up! Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot too have seen massive increase in traffic violation fines’ collection in 2018 compared to last year.After city police commissioner A K Singh famously pledged before the Gujarat high court in July that he will either perform or perish, traffic polices' danda has raked in one of the steepest moolahs of Rs 12.9 crore till September this year. The number of violations in which FIRs were filed touched 4,500 as against 1,731 last year.If one adds up this average Rs 1.43 crore penalty coughed up by Amdavadis monthly, traffic fine for 2018 are expected to cross beyond Rs 17 crore. This would be over two and half times of Rs 6.58 crore fine collected last year.As there would be hardly any Amdavadi who did not get his or vehicle towed or locked down for being parked on the roadside, it is anybody's guess that towing tops the list of traffic violations. Cops towed 78,322 vehicles till September collecting 1.84 crore fine as against 43,383 cases filed in 2017 which fetched Rs 47.98 lakh as revenue in fine."Apart from towing of vehicles, not wearing helmet, seat belt and jumping signal constituted nearly 70% traffic violation cases. As many offenders faulted on multiple counts, the fines multiplied," says DCP, traffic (west) Sanjay Kharat.Additional Commissioner of Police, traffic, JR Mothaliya, acknowledged that Gujarat HC rulings pushed cops to crack the whip and intensify drive against traffic offenders.Higher fine collection is a by-product of the intensive joint drive undertaken by traffic police and local cops to discipline traffic in city. While the petition in HC was a trigger for the strict drive, it will continue with more rigor even if the plea has been disposed, ” Mothaliya said.Cops say no tolerance for illegal parking would especially continue unabated. "We have procured 50 towing vehicles in addition to the existing 15 vehicles," added Mothaliya.In fact, Surat city police saw a jump of Rs 5 crore in the spot fine collection in 2018. Sudhir Desai, DCP, traffic said, “In 2017, we collected Rs 9.87 crore in 8,47,754 spot cases. Against this, in 2018, till date, we have collected Rs 14.28 crore for 9,99,194 violations.In 2017, Vadodara city police had collected Rs 4.3 crore fine, this year the traffic branch has already got over Rs 4.8 crore. “We also ran a campaign under ‘Traffic Ek Sanskaar’ so that citizens follow basic rules,” said a police official.In Rajkot too, the collection is expected to be more than Rs 3 crore compared to Rs 2.95 crore last year. Rajkot police have collected nearly Rs 1.63 crore through e-challans in 2018, as compared to Rs 5.20 lakh in the three months of 2017 when the project was launched on September 22.(With inputs from Himanshu Bhatt, Nimesh Khakhariya and Jay Pachchigar)

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