Police in tizzy after citizen reveals traffic rule violations by cops

HYDERABAD: While home minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali appealed to the public in March of this year to take advantage of the one-time discount offered by the Hyderabad traffic police on pending challans, vehicles in his own department have several pending challans for a long time.

A Twitter message went viral on Tuesday claiming that a vehicle with the registration number TS09PA 1234 allotted to the Telangana police had outstanding challans of Rs.6,945, including six violations for over-speeding, dangerous driving, and another challan for having tinted glass.

The Telangana police were taken aback after receiving the tweets about outstanding challans. The police immediately cleared all challans. The traffic police confirmed that the total fine amount was cleared by the police officer concerned.

However, A.V. Ranganath, joint commissioner (Traffic), stated that all police vehicles were registered in the name of DGP, Telangana State, Hyderabad.

Another vehicle purportedly used by DCP Malkajgiri Rakshitha K. Murthy had a pending challan. After the photos went viral, police tracked down the vehicle and discovered that it had been allotted to her. They notified her office and had the outstanding challan cleared.

Meanwhile, the Hyderabad traffic police said that since 2018, Telangana police officers had cleared 11,601 pending challans and paid a fine amount of Rs.28,85,640 to the traffic police. Ranganath also claimed that TSRTC is regularly fined for any traffic violations and that they paid Rs.15 lakh to clear all pending challans in April. "We enforce traffic fines without exception. The fact that we are issuing challans to police and other government vehicles clearly demonstrates that we are enforcing fines against all categories of vehicles,” reasoned Ranganath.