Not easy to trace addresses of motorists

Based on the photos received from the general public and cops through the Police-E-Eye mobile application, city traffic police filed 5,595 cases for parking in ‘no-parking’ areas and 2,716 cases for flouting the helmet rule. As many as 1,155 cases were filed against pillion riders for not wearing helmets.
"We have been receiving traffic rule violation related photos from the general public and cops through the mobile app. When we open the photos, our traffic cops would find that the rider and pillion riders did not wear helmets. So, we would book two cases for not wearing helmets by the rider and pillion riders. Likewise, we also book many cases from a single photo," said Raj Khanna, assistant commissioner of police (traffic-west), Coimbatore city.
"We are mainly focusing on vehicles involved in traffic violations within the city. We are serving the photo challans manually through our traffic cops. It’s often difficult to find the addresses of motorists. If the motorists have shifted, our traffic cops are forced to approach the insurance company or motorcycle or car showrooms to get their updated address or mobile phone details," said Raj Khanna.
He said the violators can pay the fine amount in cash or through debit or credit cards. If someone refuses to receive the photo challan which has the photo of the vehicle registration number with violations and fine amount details, police will paste the challan on the door of the motorist in the presence of the village administrative officers (VAO). A charge sheet will be filed against the motorist before the judicial magistrate court -VIII and the motorist has to appear before the court and pay the fine. If the motorist fails to appear before the court within one summons, the court will issue an arrest warrant," said Raj Khanna.
Police sources said the Union government should bring an amendment in the central motor vehicle Act and should order that digital service of messages for violating traffic rules can be served through SMS, WhatsApp and e-mail. This would help the department to reduce the manpower to send them to serve photo challan. During new vehicle registration or fitness certificate verification, the RTOs should collect the vehicle owners’ mobile numbers, email ids and these should be uploaded on the websites. It would help the traffic cops to send the violation related message to them.