Surat: Hey champ! These stickers will tag you traffic violators

SURAT: The next time you are caught violating traffic rules, you will get recognition as a ‘champion.’ But it’s definitely not a tag to be proud of. For, cops will paste stickers on your vehicle that will read something like ‘No Helmet Champion’, ‘Wrong Side Champion’ or ‘No Parking Champion.’

In a novel way to instill the need to follow traffic rules, the Surat city police have decided to tag offenders’ vehicles with such stickers which will be even hard to remove.

These initiatives are being taken by the police as part of the ‘i-follow 21’ campaign started by traffic cops to create awareness for traffic rules.
Police are targeting to identify 50,000 people who break traffic rules in the next one month and stickers will be applied on their vehicles.
“A good quality adhesive will be used in the stickers so that they cannot be removed easily. Even if the offenders remove it later, the police’s purpose is served as they were made to realize that they have broken traffic rules,” said a police officer.
Police have identified three common violations - driving two-wheelers without helmets, parking in non-designated areas and driving on the wrong side - for this drive.
“The offenders will be declared as a champion for breaking rules in these three areas in which maximum violation is recorded. These violations also lead to fatal accidents and through this campaign we are trying to save precious lives,” said Ajay Tomar, city police commissioner.
At the same time, police will identify 2,000 individuals who are found following the rules strictly. They will be given a cap of ‘i-follow.’ These individuals will be given a card which will be stamped every time when the person is found following all rules. A total of 200 traffic rule followers will be given a trophy if they get five stamps in the card.
It should be noted that the Diamond City was the first in the country to have a CCTV-based traffic fine issuing system that was launched in January 2013.
Along with the awareness campaign, police will continue to collect cash fines from offenders but the number of persons penalized will be reduced.
“We expect people to follow the rules. Police will take help of noted citizens to create awareness and their videos will be shared through social media,” added Tomar.