Mumbai motorists and their excuses - Lame, sheepish and truly bizarre

Most excuses from errant motorists on why they cannot pay up their traffic fines - from job loss to claiming violations were by a previous owner - stump cops as collection drive begins

The traffic police started calling its most errant motorists via its control room on Monday to recover pending e-challan fines. However, after calls to 2,000 people in three days, nearly 40 per cent have been trying to blow them off with bizarre excuses. Among them are — no money right now so will pay when we get some, that they have never broken traffic rules, that the car is actually being used by someone else.

Traffic police personnel have been working at an internal call centre created just for this purpose, where 24 staffers have been calling motorists. The 60 per cent people who were willing to pay up said they need some time.

Traffic police also plan to visit errant motorists to make them pay up, but that plan has not been executed yet. File pic

Among the reasons people are giving to not pay the fine is that they sold their vehicle, so they are not liable to pay fines. Some say that they left the city for their hometowns during the lockdown, so they cannot pay now. Some people said they lost their jobs during the lockdown so they do not have money now. They added that as and when they get money, they will pay up.

One driver told the traffic police that he has not been in the city for two years and his car is with a relative. He also refuted having broken any traffic rules in the first place.

Another driver said that he purchased his secondhand car only 10 months ago and that the fines are not his alone. As such, he questioned why should he alone pay all the fines.

Another driver claimed that he had never violated any traffic rules. One driver claimed that whenever he got a call while driving, he would park his car and use the phone. However, he would still get fined. He claimed that he did not deliberately break the rules.

With such a large number of people refusing to pay up, the traffic police will wait to finish the exercise and then submit a report to the state home ministry, after which a decision on further action would be taken.

Also Read: Traffic offenders refusing to pay up disappointing

A traffic police officer told mid-day, "When people sell their vehicle, they should go to the Regional Transport Office (RTO) and fill a transfer form, which leads to the registration of the vehicle in the new owner's name in the RTO records."

Joint Commissioner of Police (traffic) Yashaswi Yadav said, "Police have been calling people to pay their e-challan dues. So far, 60 per cent of those called have shown the willingness to pay."

Traffic police's pending fines from 29 lakh e-challans amount to Rs 317 crore. They have also planned to visit people's homes soon to ask them to pay up.

50k
No. of most errant motorists the traffic police are calling for fines

29 lakh
Total no. of unpaid e-challans

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