Traffic e-challans to reach in 15 days max

NEW DELHI: Traffic enforcement agencies across the states will have to send the challans to offenders within 15 days of recording any offence electronically. Moreover, the state government and agencies concerned must ensure notifying the commuters about the installation of CCTV cameras, speed detection cameras or any such device for recording traffic norm violations, according to the new set of rules notified by the road transport ministry under the amended Motor Vehicle Act.
The rules specify that the agencies concerned must ensure that appropriate warning signs are conspicuously placed before the stretches that are monitored by electronic enforcement devices and they must ensure that physical markings, physical stop lines and pedestrian crossings are clearly marked on the road. Missing signage and physical markings are common across cities in India. These are pre-requisite for enforcement of traffic rules.
Ministry officials said one of the main objectives of the improved MV Act was to bring transparency in enforcement of traffic rules by using IT and CCTV recording. To ensure that there is proper evidence to prove the offence, the rules have specified that the enforcement agency must store the footage till the disposal of challan and till the conclusion of proceedings initiated, including appeals.
The states have been encouraged to introduce body wearable cameras for enforcement personnel while managing the traffic or carrying out any enforcement drive. They will also have to notify the offenders that the entire episode is being recorded for use as evidence.
Under this rule, the state governments will also ensure that appropriate electronic enforcement devices are installed at high-risk and highdensity corridors on National Highways and state highways, and at critical junctions at least in all million-plus cities. It has put out the list of 132 cities, which qualify for such electronic monitoring. Maharashtra has a maximum of 19 such cities, followed by 17 in Uttar Pradesh and 13 in Andhra Pradesh.
“Now with the increased penalty for traffic offences, the states are generating more revenue and that should be ideally used for putting the electronic enforcement system across all cities. We need to shift from deploying traffic policemen for catching the violators to using technology for recording the scientific evidence. The traffic violations will reduce only when there is a fear of getting caught for every violation and that can happen only when we have electronic enforcement,” said a central government official.