CH NEWS
YADGIR
Vehicle owners and drivers in Yadgir have shown little interest in paying pending traffic fines despite the 50 percent concession announced by the police department. The concession was applicable to cases registered through traffic e-challans as well as pending cases registered with the Transport Department between 1991 and 2022. Vehicle owners were given an opportunity to pay the fines at a 50% discount from June 21 to July 10. However, only Rs 1.23 lakh was collected during the 20-day concession period, which is very low compared to the total outstanding amount.
In Yadgir city, 12,119 e-challan cases had been registered, involving fines of Rs 67.91 lakh. Before the concession period, Rs 6.40 lakh had been collected from 1,166 cases. Fines amounting to Rs 61.51 lakh remained pending in 10,953 cases. During the concession period, Rs 91,500 was collected offline from 323 cases, while Rs 32,000 was collected online from 112 cases. Thus, a total of Rs 1.23 lakh was collected from 435 cases.
As a result, Rs 60.91 lakh in fines is still pending for collection.
The traffic police had deployed separate personnel at the traffic police station to facilitate payment under the concession. PDA devices were also provided to traffic personnel to enable online payments. Despite these measures, vehicle owners and drivers showed little interest in clearing their pending fines. Fines had been imposed for violations including signal jumping, triple riding, driving on one-way roads in the wrong direction, overspeeding, roadside parking and parking two-wheelers and four-wheelers on footpaths. Penalties were also imposed for riding three persons on a two-wheeler, using mobile phones while driving, driving without seat belts and transporting more schoolchildren than the permitted limit, among other violations.
Meanwhile, traffic violations, particularly illegal parking, continue unabated at several locations in the city. Vehicles are often parked haphazardly along roadsides, in markets, on footpaths and even near ‘No Parking’ signs, obstructing the movement of pedestrians and other vehicles. Areas including Netaji Circle, Chittapur Road, Railway Station Road, Old Bus Stand, New Bus Stand, Gandhi Circle, Hattikuni Cross Road and Ganj Circle witness frequent roadside parking.Pedestrians say they face considerable difficulty while walking through these busy roads and market areas due to vehicles parked indiscriminately.
Despite the lack of response to the concession scheme, traffic police personnel will continue to be deployed at major junctions and roads in the city and collect fines from those violating traffic rules, said District Superintendent of Police Prithvik Shankar.