E-Paper
₹58.84 crore traffic fines from 1.689 million violators in city pending
PUNE The traffic branch of the Pune Police has, as of June 31, ₹58
PUNE The traffic branch of the Pune Police has, as of June 31, ₹58.84 crore pending in dues from 1.689 million violators in the city, penalised for breaking various rules in 2021.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the traffic department has been able to recover ₹8.59 crore so far.
The total fine which has been calculated is to the tune of ₹67.43 crore.
According to statistics available with the traffic police, in 2021, 0.305 million violators have paid a fine of ₹8.59 crore till date.
Covid-19 lockdown and restrictions have affected fine recovery in the past few months, police stated.
If an offender is fined on the road, recovery is done on the spot. If the fine is levied with the assistance of CCTV surveillance, then the fine is recovered by the traffic police during nakabandi operations, where vehicle owners are stopped and randomly checked for dues.
In case of repeat and habitual offenders the police visit their homes and issue challans them for pending dues.
DCP (Traffic) Rahul Shrirame said, “Paying dues against violations is mandatory and we are taking efforts for the recovery of fines. Advisories and notices have been sent to the violators asking them to pay their pending dues. Also, nakabandi operations are being done to recover the fines. Covid-19 had an impact on fine recovery as a majority of the fines have been levied through CCTV.”
Maximum fines are levied on traffic violators is for not wearing helmets. According to the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, which is still to be implemented in Maharashtra, the fine for not wearing a helmet is ₹1,000. Between January and June, 2021, 0.7 million helmetless riders were caught by police.
Police have appealed to citizens to pay fines online using any Unified Payment Interface (UPI) application on their mobiles.
