By Delhi Traffic Police has recommended to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) to cancel driving licence and registration of vehicle owners if several challans are pending against them. It has also asked the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to recover pending e-challans from traffic offenders when they try to renew their insurance. The move comes after traffic police found that several violators were not paying challans.
A senior police officer said this is to ensure electronically issued summons are complied with as 25,000 challans are being issued by speed cameras every day but 60% of these remain unpaid.
Data from Traffic Police shows that 82,17,692 notices were issued by speed cameras, 18,03,293 challans by red light violation detection cameras and 16,92,308 for other violations in the last year. However, the amount received in fines last year was Rs 1,24,17,23,000 as compared to Rs 94,08,03,900 in 2019.
JCP (Traffic) Manish Kumar Agrawal said, “We have written to MORTH to restrict/block services like licence, registration, permit, pollution under control (PUC) certificate, etc. We have informed them that licensing and registration of vehicles have been linked to pending challans. If someone goes to re-register their vehicle or re-validate their driver’s licence, and is found to have pending challans, services will be blocked unless they pay. We have also suggested that IRDAI ask for a higher premium from such defaulters.”
Traffic authorities also decided to share details of pending e-challans of registered vehicles with insurance companies. “Traffic Police has asked the ministry to create a legal framework for insurance companies to take into cognizance the challan history of the vehicle insured,” a senior police officer said.
Meanwhile, data provided by traffic police shows a decline in traffic violations since the 2019 amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act came into effect.
“A total of 2,51,547 challans were issued for improper parking in 2020 as compared to 9,34,699 challans the previous year. While 1,05,436 challans were issued for one-way violation in 2020, 2,93,698 people were prosecuted in 2019. Similarly, 91,257 people were prosecuted for not wearing helmets last year but 10,36,151 challans were issued in 2019. 86,342 challans issued for crossing the stop line in the last year as compared to 3,38,031 challans,” an officer said.
