E-Paper
6,000 helmet-less riders fined ₹3.31 crore in two months
Residents have complained that they are not receiving SMS alerts for fines, instead they are directly receiving court notices
PUNE A total of 6,0000 bikers, who were found riding two-wheelers without helmets have been slapped with a fine of ₹3.31 crore. The cases were recorded in January and February. However, residents have complained that they are not receiving SMS alerts for fines, instead they are directly receiving court notices. Commuters expressed shock when they were summoned to Lok Adalat for non-payment of e-challan.
In 2021, the Pune police traffic department collected ₹90 crore in fines from 18 lakh helmet-less riders.
According to a traffic police inspector attached to Chatuhshrungi on anonymity said. “Most of these riders are either caught for not wearing helmet or jumping the red light. If your mobile number is not registered, then the challan gets accumulated which results in non-payment. This is when the citizens are summoned to court. It is the duty of the RTO to make sure that the vehicle is linked to a mobile number during registration.”
Sanjay Sasane, deputy regional transport officer at Pune RTO said, “The new motor vehicle rule 4 was introduced in 2017, whereupon on registering your vehicle with RTO, the mobile number is also registered. But many of the people who own old vehicles are not aware of this rule, hence I appeal to them to link their mobile numbers to their vehicles at the earliest to avoid such situations.”
DCP ( traffic ) Rahul Srirame said “ Most of the commuters who were fined forgot to pay their dues on time and hence they are summoned through Lok Adalat notices to pay their dues. The dues get accumulated overtime and so citizens feel a pinch in the pocket to pay them. However, we do agree that commuters are not getting offence-related notices on time due to technical reasons. We will take the necessary steps so that less inconvenience is caused to the citizens.”
