Tirupati traffic police help fill government coffer

TIRUPATI: Traffic Police has been helping the government to fill its coffer with the huge amounts collected in the form of fines from rule violators. Since the introduction of e-challan system on August 20, the traffic police registered over 18,231 cases against rule violators in which an amount of Rs 64,71,000 has been collected in the form of fines.

Since its launch, the e-challan system has been helping the police spot the violators easily, with the aid of technology. The system was launched and is in force in some other cities. Tirupati, however, stands apart where traffic wing has introduced violation monitoring system using 62 CCTV cameras installed at over 24 junctions in the city. 

With the help of these CCTV cameras, police can capture visuals of traffic violators round-the-clock. Crimes such as triple driving, signal jumping, using cell phone while driving, defective number plates, vehicles carrying overload, one-way entry etc., that are recorded on the spot can now be caught on the camera and the violators were imposed with fine.

“After spotting the violators, based on the camera footage, they will be tracked and an e-challan will be generated with the evidence. An e-mail, SMS will be sent to the mobile numbers of the vehicle owners concerned with the support of RTA data. The violators will have to pay the fine within 15 working days,” DySP (Traffic), Tirupati, B. Sukumari said.

Speaking to DC, B. Sukumari said that the new system helps to spot violators easily and inculcate a sense of discipline among the public. “The riders caught in drunken driving and without driving license cases were also served with e-challan and after two challans,  the vehicles will be seized as per the Motor Vehicles Act and handed over to the RTA,” she said. 

About 675 drunk and drive cases have been registered since August 20 in which the court has imposed a penalty of Rs 22,48,500 against the guilty. Similarly around 9,279 cases of no driving licence and a fine of Rs 27,94,200, another 1,062 cell phone driving cases and a fine of Rs 10,62,000 were registered. Besides, 3,735 triple riding cases and a fine Rs 7,73,350 were collected since August 20.

Meanwhile, the traffic police were really facing difficulty in controlling the auto rickshaw drivers who resort to repeated traffic violations. “Autorickshaw drivers are repeated offenders with around 1,350 cases of side sitting and 371 cases of front sitting being registered against them in which an amount of Rs 2,76,200 and Rs 1,94,800 respectively were collected so far as fines from them,” the DySP mentioned. She urged the public to learn good habits of driving and not to resort to any traffic violations.