Last week, Bengaluru Traffic Police tracked down and seized a scooter of a small-time businessman from Sudhama Nagar. There were over 400 cases for traffic norm violations against the vehicle and the pending dues was a steep ₹3.04 Lakh.
When confronted by the traffic police and served notice to clear all pending dues, the shocked businessman requested them to take away his scooter instead, which is estimated to be worth only ₹20,000. However, the police though nevertheless seized the scooter, turned down his request, and warned him to pay the fine or face legal action including an FIR. The businessman has now requested time to pay the fine.
This is one among the two cases, where two-wheelers have over ₹3 lakh fine amount pending against them, now being recovered in a special drive launched two weeks ago. The special drive is focusing on tracking down vehicles with fine dues of over ₹50,000 pending against them, said M.N. Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic). “This special drive is one of the many such drives we have launched recently, including against school bus drivers, and water tankers among others to ensure traffic discipline among road users,” he said.
There are 2858 vehicles, most of them two-wheelers against which traffic fines over ₹50,000 are pending, including two with over ₹3 lakh fines pending. There are 3,60,453 cases pending against 2858 vehicles and in total, they have a fine outstanding of ₹18.96 crore. That makes it on an average 126 cases and ₹66,340 pending against each vehicle.
BTP officials have so far tracked down over 400 vehicles in the last two weeks. Jumping signals and not wearing helmets are the most common offences and maximum offenders are two-wheeler riders, a senior police officer said.
BTP had over the last two years shifted its focus away from enforcement to traffic management on the streets, opting for contactless enforcement. These vehicle owners haven’t responded to notices, have not paid fines, and in many cases, they have shifted houses, notices haven’t reached them, and vehicles have been sold off but records have not been updated. Jurisdictional police have been tasked with tracking down these vehicles and collecting fines based on the address of the owners. In each case police are conducting a detailed probe before seizing the vehicle and slapping fines, a senior official said.
