3.25 crore traffic violations still uncleared in Karnataka

Bengaluru: As many as 3.25 crore traffic violations caught across the state for the past years are still pending, despite authorities introducing the discount option three times last year to encourage violators to come forward and clear the e-challans.

Unsurprisingly, a majority of the pending violations (Rs 2.68 crore) happen to be from Bengaluru, where violators owe the state Rs 1,425 crore out of the total amount of Rs 1,700 crore.

Data from the state police shows that while violators rushed to pay fines the first time, enthusiasm had slackened by the third time, with the amount collected across the state a mere Rs 12.41 crore, a far cry from the Rs 138 cr the government scooped up during the first effort.

Alok Kumar, Additional Director General of Police (Traffic and Road Safety), told DH, "The first time the discount was introduced in February 2023, we recovered Rs 138.19 crore in traffic fines."

According to Kumar, Rs 123.5 crore was collected from Bengaluru itself.

"After that, there was a drastic dip. The second time it was introduced in March, it came down to Rs 17.63 crore," he said. The third time the rebate offer was introduced, it was live from July 6 to September 9. 

Kumar felt this was because when the discount was introduced the second time, vehicle users might have been led to believe that this would be an ongoing affair. "People must have believed that the police wouldn't take stringent action against them," he said.

Police are now gearing up for a crackdown on violators and mulling a multi-stakeholder, multi-pronged approach to tackle the issue.

The ADGP said he has instructed officers to take up special drives and was open to the idea of making "public the names of violators who have racked up huge fines".

After May 15, the state police are likely to begin issuing notices to violators in Bengaluru who have racked up violations to the tune of Rs 25,000 and more.

In other cities and towns, they want to issue notices to vehicle owners having pending fines of Rs 10,000 and more. "We will give them 15 days time to pay up before we serve them summons," he said.

The police have also written to the transport department to consider amending the Motor Vehicles Act to allow impounding and auctioning of vehicles involved in multiple violations.

However, C Mallikarjuna, Additional Commissioner of Transport (Enforcement, South), said that this is not a workable solution. "There is no provision for this currently. We are discussing this; once the elections are done, we will submit a proposal to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India (MORTH). This will take time," he said.