Rs 660 crore collected for traffic violations, only Rs 67 crore spent

How is money paid by citizens as fine for violating traffic rules being utilised in the State?
According to the Government, which collected a whopping Rs.660 crore as traffic fine in three years, the money is spent on a host of traffic-related projects. However, in its own admission, just about Rs.67.65 crore has been released in three years. Worse still, only about Rs.47.09 crore has been spent.
On Thursday, the Government informed the Legislative Council that it has collected a fine of Rs.660.97 crore between 2019 and 2021. The highest was collected in 2021 with Rs.265. 52 crore, followed by Rs.208.47 crore in 2020 and Rs.186.97 crore in 2019, data provided by Home Minister Araga Jnanendra to the Council revealed. His response was to a question from Congress MLC Dinesh Gooligowda.
According to the data, of the total Rs.660 crore, the highest traffic fine was collected in Bengaluru city Rs.329 crore, followed by Mysuru city with Rs.23.6 crore, and Hubballi-Dharwad with Rs.18.9 crore.
When it comes for spending from the money collected as fine, the Government released Rs.2.46 crore to districts and Rs.9.01 crore to cities during 2018-2019 of which Rs.2.4 crore and Rs.8.13 crore, respectively, was spent. In 2019-2020, Rs.1.28 crore and Rs.5 crore was released to district units and cities, respectively, of which the entire amount was spent.
In 2021, under other category, Rs.50 core was released of which Rs.30.26 crore was spent. An explanation in the written reply by the Home Minister said that of the total funds released n 2020-2021, Rs.19.73 crore has been kept as as a deposit in KRDICL by Bengaluru Police Commissioner for a tender process. In all Rs.67.75 crore was released in three years of which Rs.47.09 crore has been spent.