The nakabandi drive launched by the Pune traffic police on February 6 has helped them recover dues worth ₹47 lakh in 14 days. Twenty eight (28) traffic police divisions have set up posts which function for a couple of hours everyday and collect fines through random checks on the roads across the city.
Under the new system launched by the traffic department, its control room receives feed from 1,230 closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, installed the city in March 2017, of various traffic violations. The violations are captured on CCTV and the offenders are sent e-challans but the police have failed to recover these dues as people are not aware of the fine registered against them.
Under the ongoing drive, police stop people on these check posts and check their registration number or licence number on the new software made available to them. If a person has unpaid dues against the vehicle number, it shows up instantly on the traffic policeman's screen. The person has to pay their dues or lose his/her licence.
"Earlier, we used to issue a paper certificate when the licence was confiscated. Now that we have gone paperless, the person whose licence is confiscated gets a text message instantly," said police inspector S Bajare of the Pune traffic police department. The text message helps in recovery of licence from the regional transport office (RTO).
{{/usCountry}}"Earlier, we used to issue a paper certificate when the licence was confiscated. Now that we have gone paperless, the person whose licence is confiscated gets a text message instantly," said police inspector S Bajare of the Pune traffic police department. The text message helps in recovery of licence from the regional transport office (RTO).
{{/usCountry}}In the first two weeks, the police have collected fine from 13,953 people through 28 check posts. The check posts were set up to recover ₹20 crore, part of which were to come through e-challans issued by the police.
Regardless of whether the person has a fine or not, their phone numbers are noted down to add to the database of phone numbers. When the CCTV system of issuing challans started, the police had received a pool of eight lakh phone numbers. Until March 2017, the city had a vehicle population of 33,37,370 of which 2,70,000 were registered between March 2016 and March 2017 alone, according to the Environment Status Report (ESR) submitted by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to the general body.
The city traffic police will continue the drive until the entire amount of unpaid dues is recovered, according to Ashok Morale, deputy commissioner of police, traffic. Given the amount of money recovered in 14 days and an average of around ₹3.4 lakh in collection per day, the police might need at least 600 days to recover the amount unpaid till February 6.