Cops chase traffic fines

Traffic police want to recover fines amounting to over Rs 330 crore by tying up with pollution checking centres and insurance agencies

You can run, but you can’t hide.

With outstanding fines for traffic violations exceeding Rs 330 crore, the traffic police are readying ways to widen the net. They now plan to instruct all Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC) centres to recover the traffic violation due amount from the vehicle whenever it comes in for a PUC checking.

That’s not all. Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant and the city’s traffic chief -- Joint Commissioner Ravi Kanthe

Gowda -- have written a letter to RTO officials and insurance agencies to catch those who manage to escape the PUCC net.
Already, in the recent months the traffic police have gone all-out to enforce the laws. Scores of policemen are seen standing after nearly every traffic signal, signalling to errant motorists that breaking the law will not go unpunished.

In the months that Bengaluru was locked down due to covid-19, several motorists had started taking liberties with the rules. As a result of their initiatives, the traffic police have so far been able to clear 50,000 pending cases and have collected Rs 1.47 crore in fines till November 20. Bangalore Mirror had reported last month that the traffic police had collected Rs 18 crore by landing at the doorstep of repeat offenders.

According to the traffic police, there are over 90 lakh violations which are pending from past three years and about Rs 339 crore has to be collected from the violators.
A senior police officer said that despite all the efforts, only about 10 per cent of the fines have been collected. “We have been discussing ways to collect the fines to send out a strong message that traffic rules will be strictly enforced and they cannot escape after committing traffic violations. From going to their doorstep to catching them at signals and parking lots, we have been collecting pending fines from all the motorists. We are discussing and are planning to work with insurance companies so that people clear the pending fines at the time of renewal of their insurance policies. There are several people who have 15 to 20 violations pending against them If the plan works out, they will have no choice but to pay up otherwise the insurance policy will not be renewed.”

DCP traffic (East), Narayan, said that the plan to approach pollution checking centres andinsurance companies is in the works. “If the vehicle has pending violations, it cannot get insurance renewal or get the emission test certificates,” he said.

Driving without a PUCC or an insurance policy is a violation of rules and the traffic police regularly carry out out drives to catch errant motorists who do the same.
DCP traffic (West), Soumyalatha, said that a lot of people go to petrol pumps to get the emission test done and since they have to get the emission test for every six months, people will automatically start clearing the pending fines before getting the emission certificate. “Even if they manage to skip that, they will be held at the time of the insurance renewal. Since there are many insurance companies (to work with), we are still planning (it out),” she said.

The traffic police had earlier alerted all authorised parking lots in the city like in malls and shopping complexes to keep a check on vehicles with pending violations.
The traffic chief refused to share further details about the plan as its modalities are still being worked out.