Nagpur: Beware the habitual violators of traffic rules. Next time you jump the red signal or drive the vehicle without helmet or car belt, exceed stipulated speed, crossing white lines, City Traffic Police will ensure home delivery of challan with proof of violation. Traffic Control Branch of Nagpur Police has adopted the novel technique to punish the helmetless two-wheeler riders without a word of confrontation.
Armed with the hi-tech method, the traffic police will capture the two-wheeler riders without wearing helmet in their mobile handsets and after tracing the registration numbe rusing integrated software provides information from the RTO, the challans will be sent to their registered address. This method was adopted to end scuffles between cops and citizens which was on increase in recent times.
Adopting this novel method, traffic cops have issued 9,006 e-challans in a month. And the drive is being implemented further in full throttle.
Citizens must follow traffic rules: DCP Patil
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP Traffic) Smartna Patil said, “If citizens follow the traffic rules on their own then the question of punishing them does not arise. The city has a total of 222 major squares and at 151 places the traffic signals are installed. On the other hand, the Traffic Department has a strength of 760 personnel. In this situation, deployment of 2-2 traffic cops at each signal is not possible. If citizens follow the traffic rules on their own, more cops can be deployed at crowded places for streamlining traffic in a better way,” the DCP stressed.
The e-challan system is saving precious time of cops. It takes only 10 seconds to capture a picture. Later, the cops submit the pictures at concerned Traffic Control Branch and the challan is generated. After noting reason for the challan, traffic branch issues computer generated challan and sends it to the biker. He can pay the challan at Traffic Control Branch or in the court, said DCP Patil. In last over one month, South Traffic Branch has slapped e-challans to 2505 offenders. Indora Traffic Control Branch issued 1977 challans followed by 1585 by Traffic East, 1366 by Traffic MIDC, 1086 and 488 by Traffic North and Traffic West Branch respectively. DCP Patil further informed that the e-challan system would work more effectively once installation of CCTV cameras is completed across the city. The CCTV would capture images of the offender and send automatically to Traffic Control Branch in real time to issue challan. It will ease workload of traffic cops, DCP Patil added.
A woman gets surprised:
A woman, riding two-wheeler along with her two kids, got surprise of her life when she stopped at Telephone Exchange Square. A traffic cop coolly came near to her, clicked her his mobile phone and walked away equally coolly. The woman was left stunned as to why the cop photographed her. But when the nearby people apprised her about the real reason, a sense of relief dawned on her but she also went tense on the prospect of coughing up of hefty fine for not wearing helmet.
An elderly man gives smile:
At Chhatrapati Square, when a traffic policeman approached an elderly man without helmet and started photographing him, he gave broad smile thinking that the cop could be “honouring” him being a senior citizen. The aged man even thanked the cop. The “smiling face” would turn grimace when the e-challan will reach his home.