Mumbai Traffic Police

arrest warrants

Salman Khan

Aaditya Thackeray

Ajit Pawar

unpaid fines

The collection this year is less than Rs 100 crore, the traffic police sources said (Photo by K C Singh)

RTO

e-challan recovery

The police are yet to recover around Rs 80 crore from traffic violators and they have decided to use the oldest trick in the book to make the offenders pay up. Starting December 1, thewill request the courts to issueagainst the defaulters, hoping the prospect of being sent to jail will scare them into coughing up the fines.The traffic police stats reveal 27 lakh e-challans haven’t been settled from the time e-challans were introduced in Mumbai in 2016. Of these, more than 9,000 vehicles were issued e-challans carrying penalty of Rs 5,000 and more. Over the past few months, the police have begun sending SMSes and letters to the offenders, but the returns haven’t been very encouraging.In August last year, an investigation by Mumbai Mirror revealed that vehicles used by some of the city’s most powerful and popular personalities, includingand, figured in the traffic police’s list of those who haven’t paid the fines (‘Cars used by Salman Khan, Aaditya Thackeray among those inlist’, MM, August 11, 2018). The Mumbai Traffic Police collected Rs 139 crore in penalties last year. The collection this year is less than Rs 100 crore, the traffic police sources said.Joint Commissioner of Police (Mumbai Traffic Department) Madhukar Pandey confirmed the cops will seek arrest warrants against those who haven’t settled the e-challans. While he refused to elaborate, a senior official said that it was “necessary to make the offenders fear the law”.“Earlier the police seized offenders’ licence and vehicle papers and retained these until the penalty was paid. Now with e-challans in place, a photo of the violator’s vehicle is clicked, and an SMS is sent. Many a time, the number is not registered with theand even the address mentioned is incorrect. We need a system where people realise they can be sent to jail for not paying up,” the official said.Around 30 lakh vehicles operate in Mumbai daily. With the introduction of revised fines (between Rs 5,000 and Rs 23,000) for illegal parking in July, one of the ideas the police were considering was to involve the vehicle insurance companies to speed up