Data provided by the Mumbai Traffic Police shows that 2020 had more traffic violations than the year prior despite being in a complete lockdown for more than 6 months. It is said that 5,095,478 drivers received challans for traffic offences in 2020 whereas only 4,938,485 violations were reported in 2019.
Further, the overall penalties imposed by the traffic police in 2020 amounted to ₹148.16 crores, with only 953,679 fines worth ₹25.73 crores recovered so far. Data shows that 4,141,799 challans worth ₹122.43 crores are still pending. By comparison, 2019 had unpaid challans valued at ₹102 crores.
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As per traffic police officers, the easing of lockdown restrictions resulted in the department increasing checkpoints and patrolling across the city so as to ensure the orderly flow of traffic. This apparently allowed them to spot and prosecute more traffic violations than usual.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Pravin Padwal said that the agency had witnessed an increase in the number of violations in January and February 2020, weeks before lockdown restrictions were put in place.
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Traffic police officers further said that around 29 lakh e-challan fines remain unpaid which totals to ₹315 crores. However, the call centre set up by the department in December 2020 has contacted around 4,600 motorists while recovering ₹1.12 crores in fines from 2,596 violators. Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Yashasvi Yadav said that the call centre will continue to function until the pending challans are resolved.
Officials had also launched a mobile application to make it easier for the violators to pay their fines. However, this initiative did not get a decent response, nor did the public calls by the department urging people to pay their dues.
Keeping this in mind, the Traffic Police Department recently put in a request to the Regional Transport Department asking them to cancel the driving licenses of around 2,000 motorists who failed to clear their pending e-challans.
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