Traffic violations in the national capital dropped sharply by 66 per cent in the month of September this year, compared to the previous year, following the implementation of the amended Motor Vehicles Act that hiked the fines significantly, police said. The Parliament in July passed the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which seeks to tighten road traffic regulations in an attempt to improve road safety. The amended Motor Vehicle Act, which attracted criticism from several quarters due to hefty fines, came into force from September 1. "In September 2018, a total of 5,24,819 challans were issued, while in September 2019, 1,73,921 challans have been issued against different violations of traffic rules," a senior police officer said.
Police said there is a focus on strict regulation and improving compliance along with effective enforcement. Apart from the hefty fine amounts, another deterrent is the fact that cases are being sent to the court as compounding power has not been given to the police so far in Delhi and people want to avoid that hassle, they said. A trucker from Rajasthan paid a penalty of Rs 1.41 lakh after being caught for overloading by the enforcement wing of Delhi transport department. The driver paid the penalty of Rs 1,41,700 in Rohini court in September. In another incident, last month, the driver and owner of a truck were slapped a total fine of over Rs two lakh in the national capital for different violations, including overloading and driving without a proper licence.
The truck, having a Haryana registration number, was fined by an enforcement team of Transport Department on the GT Karnal Road. According to the data released by Delhi Police for the month of September in 2018 and 2019, the number of challans came down in many of the cases. Police issued 13,281 challans for over-speeding in September 2018 and 3,366 in the same month in 2019. Similarly, there were 15,261 challans issued for triple riding in 2018 which reduced to 1,853 in 2019. A total of 1,04,522 challans were issued for riding without helmet last year which decreased to 21,154 in 2019, the data stated.
Police issued 3,682 challans for drunken driving in September 2018 and 1,475 in September 2019. A total of 40,065 challans were issued in 2018 for not using seat belt which reduced to 6,445 in 2019, the data stated. However, there were instances of a rise in challans too as 5,120 were issued for driving without a licence in the month in 2018, while in 2019 the number was 11,529. Similarly, the number of challans for not having pollution certificate increased to 13,659 in 2019 as compared to 3,279 in 2018.
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