Traffic cops make Rs 120 crore in 4 years!

The next time you think of jumping a traffic signal or

violating any traffic rule, think twice. For, besides risking your own life and

that of others, you will also be enriching the government. Moral is it is you

and innocent people who will suffer not the police for sure.The Traffic Police in the city has collected more than Rs 120 crore in the form

of fines since 2008 until August 17 this year from offenders for various

violations. It is not that the police is levying huge fines on purpose.It is simply a case of people’s disregard for traffic rules. Since 2008, as many as 1,08,59,198 cases have been booked and Rs 120,20,701,75 collected.

The offenders are booked the MV Act, CP Act etc. If one breaks down the numbers,

contact cases claimed a greater slice of the pie as Rs 89,28,25,290 was collected

overall in 65,39,910 cases.

The e-challans, about 43,19,288, in all fetched the police Rs 30,92,44,885.“This level of enforcement is necessary. If you look at foreign countries, the

fines are much more severe than here.

We are doing our best with whatever infrastructure we have,” said CV Anand, Additional

Commissioner of Police (Traffic).

In 2012 (till August 17) alone, a whopping Rs 24,81,31,840 has been collected in

fines for the 17,62,248 cases booked.

Out of that, Rs 18,13,28,800 accrued from 11,11,982 contact cases, while

6,50,266 echallan cases amounted to Rs 6,68,03,040.CV Anand, however, felt that though the numbers and fines appeared staggering,

motorists nowadays are not careless enough to violate laws at least compared to

the last few years.

“It has come down quite a bit. Nowadays, we even educate rule breakers on the spot

itself, so that they do not repeat the offense again,” he explained.However, the numbers for both violations and fines have been increasing more or

less over the years.According to the latest statistics provided by the Traffic

Police department,Rs 86,19,99,850 has been collected only for violations booked

under the MV Act (including towing), from 2008.Although it cannot be ascertained if there is an increasing trend in the number

of violations, cases booked under different sections have increased since 2010. While 14,99,676 contact cases were booked in 2010, the number increased to

17,02,502 in 2011.With violations under the CP Act, as 31,280 cases were reported

in 2010, 37,679 in

2011 and 29,161 till July this year.Court cases which deal mostly with drunken driving increased

manifold in 2012 due to the campaign against drunken driving, particularly during

weekends.