23 March,2011 10:41 AM IST | | Salil Urunkar
Traffic department will issue challans through speed post at residence of errant drivers caught on camera violating rules
Do not be surprised if you find a challan from the traffic department in your mailbox for the signal you jumped two days ago.
The city traffic branch will soon be sanctioned Rs 80 lakh for Speed Post postal services, which will be utilised for sending challan (receipts) to traffic offenders and can be tracked online.
The traffic planning department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had installed cameras, 70 in number across the city, two years ago, as part of the Intelligent Traffic System.
The civic body also has a control room at Swargate in which the feeds from all the cameras is monitored, But it is the traffic branch officer who is deputed to take action.
Now, the traffic branch will be starting its own control room on the Commissioner Office premises. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Manoj Patil told MiD DAY that his department has sent a proposal to the state government in this regard.
"The CCTV surveillance system is in place since a couple of years, but we were facing some operational problems with regards to issuing and delivering the challans to traffic offenders. To overcome this problem we had to use the register service Speed Post of the postal department and in turn we needed funds for this to materialise," DCP Patil said.
"We had initially asked the PMC to sanction the funds for this purpose but they could not make it. So, we proposed to the state government to make a budgetary provision of Rs 80 lakh. Once the funds are sanctioned, which would be done in a month's time, we will start monitoring traffic from the control room."
The procedure
> The procedure that will be followed is that a traffic policeman will identify the traffic offenders via the feed coming to the CCTV cameras located on all major roads of the city.
> On the basis of vehicle number plate details, a challan will be issued via Speed Post to the person concerned. The Speed Post ensures that the challan is served to the individual or handed over to a responsible person who will give it to the offender. The challan sent to a particular address can be tracked online too.
> The challans will be issued two times, to which if the individual does not respond, then the court will issue summons.
> If the court issues the summons, the individual concerned will have to be present in the court. The court will then decide on what kind of punishment should be given to the offender. If the individual fails to appear before court, further legal action can be taken against him.
