Hyderabad traffic police fleece violators with user charges'

Hyderabad: The traffic police in the city are overcharging traffic violators, or it does appear so, going by the huge “user charges” they are levying on every e-challan issues for traffic violations.

For a Rs 100 e-challan issued, the department levies Rs 35 as user charges and the same applies to multiple challans issued by the traffic police for violations on different dates.

For example, the department collects charges of Rs 35 as user charges for Rs 100, Rs 500 and even Rs 1,000 penalty imposed on violators.

Nevertheless, the user charges are pinching motorists who are paying up. In fact, they argue that they are overpaying for the charges taking into account the new gateways of payment introduced by the police department.

“It is a common experience for most people. For every e-challan issued, a person is asked to pay Rs 35 more towards service charge or user charges. There is no option but as the amount is specified in the challan they ask us to pay at the Mee-seva centre.” said Abdul Khadeer Khan, a motorist. 

Another motorist T. Arvind Singh said “There is no escape from paying the user charges even when we pay the challans online through banking/ debit cards. The user charges are high and should be waived off to those paying all challans in one go.” he felt.

A few motorists feel that the amount might look paltry if one looks at a single challan but the fact is lakh of challans are issued every year and a whopping amount is collected.

A traffic Inspector from the city who deals with e-challans tried to explain that the amount was collected by the department towards charges of sending the e-challan with a photo printed to the house of the violator. Then the postal department collects charges and later the mee-seva management collects its commission. 

“The Reserve Bank of India also allows the banks to collect MDR charges at 0.75 percent so the banks also collect some charges.” said the Inspector.

However, people argue that not in all cases where e-challans are issued, they get postal e-challans or any text messages. 

“The people are paying up when stopped by cops on the road during enforcement drives and informed about the pending challans. A few just check online and pay off.” argues Adil Khan, a resident of Old City. 

In June 2018 the traffic police issued a total of 19, 17, 649  e-challans and levied a fine of Rs 7,31,43,875 on violators.