As they await state nod for hiring private recovery agents, traffic police form 11 teams to go door-to-door and collect pending fines from violators starting from December 15
Twenty-two traffic cops have been deployed for the job. Representation Pic
The city's traffic personnel will soon knock on the doors of errant motorists who have been fined but did not pay up. The department will start the drive from December 15 as it stares at a huge backlog of nearly Rs 317 crore. Officials said motorists will be informed via the traffic department's call centre before its personnel reach their homes to collect the penalties. The department has formed 11 teams, each with two cops, for this collection operation.
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The traffic police have already contacted 2,000 motorists about the cops' impending visits to their homes
To counter the mounting pending dues, the department had sought the approval of the home ministry to engage a recovery agency. However, it is yet to receive a green light. In the meanwhile, officials said they decided to take the matter into their own hands.
The Mumbai traffic department had introduced e-challans about four years ago for quick action and transparency. Instead of receipts, it introduced cameras and handheld devices to keep an eye on violators, who are served with e-challans on their mobile phones. However, the response has not been encouraging as not too many people come forward to pay the fines on their own.
Also Read: Highway police to use drones to track violators on Mumbai-Pune Expressway
So far, 29 lakh e-challans have remained unpaid, according to data shared by the Mumbai traffic police. Sources said senior police officers met with Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and the minister of state for Home on the challenge. It was then decided to recover the money through door-to-door visits by cops.
A traffic officer said their men won't be rude like typical collection agents. He told mid-day, "When the policemen go to someone's house to take the fine, they will address the person as sir or madam. If the motorist is willing to pay the fine, the personnel will collect cash and give a receipt. If the person is unable to pay the fine, he or she will be requested to do so at the earliest."
The department has already contacted about 2,000 errant motorists about the impending visits through its call centre where it has deployed 24 policemen for the job. Considering the high number of unpaid challans, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Yashsvi Yadav recently met the transport commissioner. Driving licences of 2,000 such people have been temporarily revoked.
As per traffic police, the highest number of offenders have been found to be the users of vehicles like Maruti Ertiga - 1,55,100; Verna - 1,13,400; and Honda City - 82,600. Yadav told mid-day, "We intend to recover 50 per cent of the outstanding e-challans through this initiative."
29L
No. of e-challans that have remained unpaid so far
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