Mumbai: The Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) informed the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that the department has installed CCTV cameras in the city to monitor traffic police personnel on duty as a measure to curb corruption, and set up an email id where people can submit complaints.
A special cell has been constituted to investigate the complaints of corruption within 72 hours, an affidavit submitted by the Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said.
The affidavit said that 5,408 CCTV cameras were installed in a phased manner over the last one year, covering major traffic intersections. All the cameras are connected to the Mumbai Traffic Police Control Room.
It said that the cameras also capture traffic violations, with GPS coordinates and time stamps. A challan is issued to violators via SMS, with details of the penal sections, the amount of compounding fees, photographs and a link of the payment portal. Since October 2016, as many as 9,20,000 such challans have been issued and ₹9,20,668 have been collected as fines.
The affidavit also said that a cashless system to collect fines through e-challans was introduced on a pilot basis in October 2016 to minimise cash handling by traffic police personnel. The system uses credit and debit cards, e-wallets, net banking and other payment portals.
The traffic police have 900 e-challan handsets equipped with the latest technology. Besides, towing van operators have to take photographs of illegally parked vehicles and upload them onto the central server. This system has left little scope for enforcement personnel to be involved in illegal activities, the affidavit said.
The traffic police are also planning to induct 100 body-worn cameras on a pilot basis, which will record all audio and video communications between the policemen on street and the traffic violators. The recordings will be in an uneditable format to bring in evidence-based policing and transparency.
People can also email complaints on complaint.mumtraffic@mahapolice.gov.in if they witness any personnel involved in corruption. The special inquiry cell set up to investigate these complaints has been mandated to conduct the inquiry and submit a report within 72 hours of the receipt of complaint. The Deputy Commissioner of Police shall deal with it in a speedy manner.
A Division Bench of Justices R.M. Savant and Sadhana Jadhav was hearing a criminal petition filed by head constable Sunil Toke alleging corruption in the traffic police. In the last hearing, the bench had called the report filed by the Anti Corruption Bureau of Maharashtra, which claimed there is no corruption in the department, an eyewash.