Hyderabad: Nearly 2,500 motorists may have their driving licences suspended for repeated traffic violations. The Traffic police has written to the Road Transport Authority (RTA) to suspend the driving licences of motorists violating traffic rules like signal jumping, drunken driving, cell phone driving, over-loading or over-speeding more than three times.
The RTA has already suspended about 500 driving licences this year. The traffic police had announced in February that three-time offenders would be recommended for suspension, and the count of violations commenced from March 2016.
Though over 6,000 cases of repeated violations of specified traffic rules have been found, traffic police could not establish whether it involved the same driver. For example, a large number of motorists were caught on camera at junctions for signal jumping and were sent e-challans.
“In several cases, those receiving e-challans said the vehicle was driven by another person like friend or family members,” a senior traffic cop said.
Traffic cops said they have not come across any motorist driving a vehicle after the licence was suspended. According to them, those caught driving vehicles during licence suspension period will be sent to jail.
Joint transport commissioner T. Raghunath said traffic cops have sent a list of motorists whose driving licences should be suspended. “The traffic police sends us the list (of the names) monthly or once in two months. We issue a showcause notice to the motorist based on the address available with the Transport department. After giving them time to explain why their driving licence should not be suspended, the local Road Transport Officer takes a decision and suspends it,” he said, adding that this takes time.
Joint transport commissioner B. Venkateshwarlu said the implementation of negative (penalty) points system for violation of rules would take time as they were busy with reorganisation of districts.
Over one crore cases have been filed
- 1.6 crore cases were booked from 2011 to till date in 2016 and the total penalty amount is Rs 300 crore.
- 1 crore challans worth over Rs 200 crore have been paid by motorists from 2011 to 2016 so far.
- 60 lakh challans worth Rs 90 crore are pending payment.
60 lakh challans unpaid post-Lok Adalat
The recently held Lok Adalat to collect pending challans was not a success. Only Rs 1.5 crore of pending arrears was collected, and another Rs 1.5 crore waived, leaving 60 lakh challans worth Rs 90 crore still to be paid.
Experts faulted the traffic police for conducting the exercise at one place for a city of 625 sq.km. “The venue was not easily accessible. For motorists outside GHMC limits, it takes 90 minutes to reach it and then they had to wait for two to three hours in queue. The Lok Adalat should have been arranged at more than one locations,” said social activist B. Venugopal.
Former director general of Engineering Staff College of India Dr S. Nagabhushan Rao said, “There is a general feeling among motorists that cops won’t be able to catch them even if they don’t pay up. There is a need to put an end to this psyche. The best way to do so is to intensify checking and seize vehicles for pending challans. Motorists may be given a last chance with Lok Adalat counters at various locations.”
City criminal courts advocate S. Pradeep Kumar said, “Those who paid their challans before the Lok Adalat might feel let down. Conducting the Lok Adalat at multiple jurisdictions would have been a good idea and a valid reason for traffic cops to seek permission for it from the judiciary,” he said.
Deputy commissioner of police (traffic) A.V. Ranganath said there was a huge demand for Lok Adalat counters to be set up in various parts of the city.
