An Ertiga owner with 150 challans worth Rs 1.52 lakh, a Verna owner with Rs 1.10 lakh, a Honda City owner with Rs 80K lead list of top 10 violators as traffic police unleash collection drive
Traffic police check the documents of a motorist in Borivli. File pic
The traffic cops have compiled a list of Mumbai's 'F1 drivers' to pay them surprise visits to collect pending e-challan fines. A Maruti Ertiga and a Hyundai Verna, both from Andheri, have topped the list with 150 pending e-challans worth Rs 1.52 lakh and 110 pending e-challans worth Rs 1.10 lakh. Most drivers on the police's radar have 70 to 150 e-challans issued for rash and negligent driving on the Bandra-Worli sea link.
ADVERTISEMENT
With drivers treating the Bandra-Worli Sea Link as a racing strip, most violations related to speeding take place here.Pics/Bipin Kokate, Ashish Raje
IN the third place is the driver of a Honda City from Malad with fines worth Rs 80,000 pending. At the fourth and fifth place are drivers of a Renault Duster and of a Honda Jazz from Kandivali, with Rs 72,000 and Rs 71,000 pending against them. The traffic police said that most of the violations are related to speeding. Those of illegal parking of vehicles and cutting lanes are comparatively lesser.
After the top five, owners of a Toyota Corolla, a Honda Jazz and a Volkswagen Polo hailing from the eastern suburbs have 66 e-challans worth Rs 66,000 pending against them, while owners of a BMW and a Mercedes Benz from south Mumbai have 64 e-challans worth Rs 64,000 in their names.
A source from the traffic police said, "It is a humongous task to recover such huge amount of fines. In some cases, the fines are nearly close to the value of the cars. The vehicles are sold and re-sold innumerable times and the owners don't even bother to register the vehicles in their names. We will have to visit old owners too and recover the fines." The total amount of pending e-challans with the traffic police is Rs 317 crore.
Drive starts soon
Joint Commissioner of Police (traffic) Yashswi Yadav told mid-day, "We are contacting the top 50,000 violators from our control room. If they do not pay the e-challan penalties, then we will contact the RTO and ask them to cancel their driving licences."
The traffic department will begin its collection drive on December 15 wherein 11 teams, each with two cops, will collect outstanding penalties through door-to-door visits. Vehicle owners will be intimated of the visit through the traffic department's control room.
The traffic police have also sought the approval of the state home ministry to engage a recovery agency to collect fines. The ministry is yet to give its nod. With the introduction of e-challans, the Regional Transport Office (RTO), introduced the Vahan app to collect fines. However, it faced criticism from citizens over making personal information public.
This was because with the vehicle number, the RTO would also giveaway the name and address of its owner, which led to harassment, especially of women drivers. In just a few months, the system of the app was changed, where a vehicle owner can only check their own details. Later, the traffic police came up with an app through which car owners can access information on pending e-challans using their registration and chassis number.
Keep scrolling to read more news
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.
Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
