Interestingly, the figures were slightly more in the Covid year, that is 2020. (File)Chandigarh saw the highest driving licence suspensions of those who drove their vehicles without helmet, overspeeding, used mobile phones while driving and jumped red lights. A total of 8,680 driving licences were suspended in the last two years with the suspensions ranging from three to six months.
The data was obtained from the Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA), Chandigarh, by The Indian Express.
According to the data obtained for 2020 and 2021, the details revealed that 4,057 driving licences were suspended for violators in 2021 of which the highest were for violation of without helmet, that is 2,510 licences were suspended without helmet.
As many as 873 licences were suspended for over speeding and 342 licences were suspended for the use of mobile phones in Chandigarh. Also, 147 licences were suspended for the red light jumping and 91 licences were suspended for overloading/triple riding. Nine licences were suspended for drink driving while 82 licences were suspended for the use of pressure horn and three for reflectors.
Interestingly, the figures were slightly more in the Covid year, that is 2020.
A total of 4,623 driving licences were suspended for various violations. Of this total, in 2020, the highest number of driving licences were suspended for over speeding, which is 2,170, followed by 2006 driving licence suspensions for those without helmets.
Also, the data revealed that as many as 115 licences were suspended for the use of mobile phone while driving and 234 driving licences were suspended for red light jumping. There were 77 licences that were suspended for overloading/triple riding while eight were suspended for drink driving, 12 were suspended for pressure horn and one was suspended for reflector.
The numbers of 2022 have not been compiled by the RLA.
WHAT DOES SECTION 19 OF MOTOR VEHICLES ACT SAY
Section 19 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, read with rule 21 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, recommends suspending driving licences for up to six months for offences such as use of mobile phone while driving, speeding, drink driving and jumping red light. For riding without helmet, the driving licence was suspended for three months along with payment of a fine.
CAMERAS TO CHECK VIOLATIONS NOW
Around 225 ITMS cameras under the Chandigarh Smart City Limited were installed at 47 junctions. These cameras take note of traffic violations and a challan is generated on the number of the traffic violator. The UT traffic police has taken over monitoring of the ITMS, while the upgradation of the violations like introducing more to the already existing ones will be taken care of by the Chandigarh Smart City.
Around 10 out of 47 traffic junctions covering entry points of Chandigarh from Punjab and Haryana are equipped with software to detect over speeding and the rest of the cameras at the other 37 junctions are capable of detecting red light violations.