In a novel move to curb corruption in Hyderabad traffic police, the Government has introduced a new system of cashless challan under which the traffic violators will not have to make any cash payment to the cops on the roads.
Instead the traffic policemen on duty will only issue the notice to the commuter and they will have to make payment at the assigned Government offices. “This new system was much needed in view of the allegations of large scale corruption and irregularities against the traffic cops”, said a senior police official.
Hyderabad, with 40 lakh vehicles is notorious for traffic jams and haphazard driving leading to frequent accidents. Another major grouse of the people was that instead of paying attention on maintaining smooth flow of the traffic, cops were more interested and focused on stopping the vehicles to check the documents and demand bribe from the violators. If somebody failed to pay the money either as fine or bribe, the traffic cops would not allow the vehicle to leave the place.
The cashless system for the traffic police is the brain child of the City Police Commissioner Mahinder Reddy who came up with the system after discussions with the experts. Accordingly, the Additional Commissioner of Police traffic, Jitendar Gupta has issued the orders to the traffic cops not to collect the cash in any situation from any commuter on the road.
“At the most they can check the documents and issue challans to the violators. But they cannot force them to make the payment on the spot”, Gupta said. To ensure faster and smooth flow of traffic in the morning and evening rush hour, the top officials have also banned on checking of documents in those hours.
On the other hand, the traffic police department was also taking measures to ensure compliance by the commuters in paying the fine on receiving the challans or demand notices for any violations. “Henceforth those failing to make payment after getting three consecutive challans will face court proceedings and punishment by imprisonment”, a top official said.
To facilitate the payment of fine, the police department was also seeking the help from 125 post offices and several banks in the city. This will be in addition to the present counters of traffic police and the E-Seva citizen service centers. An Android application has also been developed through which the people can make the payment of fines.
To make the implementation of the traffic rules more effective and transparent, the traffic cops on the roads were also being equipped with the tabs on which apart from gathering the other information, they will also be able the photographs of the erring vehicles and the drivers. These tabs will be connected to a central server. 125 such tabs were already being used by the inspectors and sub-inspectors.
“Already the installation of the CCTV cameras is helping in this direction”, the official said.
In 2013, Hyderabad traffic police collected Rs 45 crore from more than 3.1 million violators, another 22 crore were collected by the neighbouring Cyberabad police from about a million violators.