The latest approach of the Mumbai traffic police to send their personnel to the doorstep of violators for the recovery of pending e-challan dues seems to be working, as the force has managed to collect fines worth ₹17 lakh in a week.
Police officers said that on June 19, Borivli and Mankhurd police stations recovered sums of about ₹5 lakh, marking the highest per day collection.
“We have started the drive by sending police personnel door to door for the past one week,” said additional commissioner of police (traffic) Pravin Padwal.
He said there was a backlog of 2.9 million unpaid fines imposed as e-challans for various traffic violations, totalling to ₹315 crore, for which the traffic police had set up a separate call centre to recover the dues from motorists.
According to traffic police, teams of constables have been asked to visit the addresses of violators who have not paid e-challans of more than ₹5,000.
Kishore Shinde, police inspector in-charge of Mankhurd traffic chowkie, said that despite being understaffed, they have deployed three constables for verification of addresses of traffic violators and visiting the houses of these violators wearing body camera.
“We sort out addresses and issue a notice to pay up the fine amount. There are several addresses where the vehicle owners have moved out or have meddled with the number plates to mislead the traffic officers and cameras,” said Shinde.
{{/usCountry}}“We sort out addresses and issue a notice to pay up the fine amount. There are several addresses where the vehicle owners have moved out or have meddled with the number plates to mislead the traffic officers and cameras,” said Shinde.
{{/usCountry}}In a week, Mankhurd traffic officers have visited at least 38 houses and delivered the notices.
“We have collected fines over ₹2 lakh and intend to collect more as many violators have asked us to allow them to pay the fine in installments,” added Shinde.
Officers urge violators to pay the fines as they would later be liable for prosecution and may have to pay a higher amount as the traffic charges interest on the unpaid dues.