Hyderabad: An independent analysis has revealed that vehicles used for transportation by top police brass in the city, have multiple traffic violations in the form of E-challans. Vehicles registered on the name of ‘Office of Inspector General of Police’ have been issued challans for different violations.
It is to be noted that the general administration department is the mother agency that allocates vehicles to police personnel for official duties. These vehicles are driven by the appointed driver.
As per data available with this newspaper, Police vehicle number TS09PA1679, TS09PA3192, TS09PB3260, TS09PC0300 registered on the name of IG police, Intelligence wing have pending challans of more than `1,000 due. For example, TS09PA3192 has dues of `1,035 towards challans.
Many vehicles which were fined several times in the past three to four years have been roaming freely in the city, but the city’s traffic police department is yet to take any action.
Interestingly, a car used in CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s convoy, having a registration of TS09K6666 is also a defaulter of fines levied for the offence of over-speeding and dangerous driving.
However, the state traffic police who has been sending common people to jail for more than 10 pending challans is yet to take any action against Excise minister V. Srinivas Goud. Traffic police issued 41 challans against Mr Goud between 2016 and 2019. When this correspondent checked the official traffic website on Monday the challans remain unpaid.
Meanwhile, the challans issued against the principal chief conservator of forest, Telangana and GHMC commissioner Dana Kishore has not been paid for years.
Expert in traffic management Malcolm D. Wolfe alleged that “If a person is being fined, there is no proper appeal system. The current mechanism of traffic is like a dictatorship. Many people in the city often get fined because of faulty traffic signals but there is no authority where you can appeal your challan. There are many people who still don’t have access to smart phones and internet and therefore remain unaware about their pending challan. Traffic police should intimate the violators through SMS.”
“Even though crash guards have been banned by the SC, Hyderabad Police and government vehicles are yet to remove it. Rules are only for voiceless people but not the government officials” added Malcolm.
