Traffic police cracks whip against errant drivers
In a crackdown against rash and drunken driving, the city traffic police have made a case for the cancellation of as many as 4,619 driving licenses which have been forwarded to the District Transport Office (DTO).
This is over three times higher than the number of driving licenses forwarded for cancellation last year which stood at 1100 licenses.
The demand for the cancellation of the driving licenses of recurring offenders and inebriated drivers had been a long pending demand from various civil societies over past few years.
“This year, the traffic department was very strict against mixing drinking with driving, rash driving and usage of mobile phones while driving. These are the kind of cases, especially the rash driving in which the young men have met their end. The department had to be very strict to bring down those cases,” Amanjeet Kaur, Kamrup (Metro) deputy commissioner of police told G Plus.
Kaur claimed that usage of mobile phones while driving has gone down significantly although the total number of cases registered against drunken and rash driving has increased.
“More than 2000 mobile phone users were fined this year while almost 90% of the four-wheeler drivers fasten their seat belts while driving,” Kaur said.
In the last five days during the Christmas Eve, the department had apprehended 295 drinking and driving cases.
However, according to a source in the DTO, not a single driving license has been cancelled so far in 2017. “Licenses have only been suspended,” the official said.
In terms of other traffic parameters such as fall in accident rates to collection of fines, the department has shown positive trends.
The department registered a drop of 8% in terms of accidents in the city while fine collection saw a rise of 11% this year till November.
Till the last month, there were 881 accidents out of which, 231 were fatal in which 254 persons died. In the rest of the 650 non-fatal cases, 677 persons were injured. In 2016, 1042 accidents occurred out of which, 258 were fatal that caused the death of 272 persons. In the rest 784 non-fatal cases, 821 persons got injured.
In terms of fine collection, the department realised Rs 3,82,11,750 till last month which is a hike over last year’s figure of Rs 3,43,24,500 in 2016. This was realised through a total of 1,58,554 vehicles – 1,26,631 spot fine cases and 31,923 court cases.
Out of the total cases that were fined, 5,792 were for drunken driving. Last year, the department had apprehended 5,554 drivers.
Major Improvement in Traffic Management: DCP
The introduction of 200 additional personnel to assist its existing 218 constables last May has been a major boost in traffic management and enforcement of rules, DCP Amanjeet Kaur said.
The department saw two other developments this year – introduction of friends of pedestrian programme and optimum utilisation of parking spaces.
“Manning the various programmes has become easier with the introduction of 200 youths in the department,” Kaur said.
In the friends of pedestrians programme, traffic personnel assist people to cross roads in the locations with heavy vehicular movement.
“On the roads, pedestrians are most prone to accidents. Also, in Guwahati, due to lack of many designated road crossing zones, it becomes necessary for the traffic personnel at some points to assist people while crossing. This initiative was started this year and has become a major hit among the people,” Kaur said.
Regarding the regulation of parking lots, Kaur said, “The department had found out that several parking lots on the roads and shopping malls were charging extra from the people. We have divided the parking lots into divisions and assigned traffic personnel to check on the parking lots regularly.”
There are plans to introduce e-challans next year which had been in the pipeline since the last two years.
“We have sent the proposal to the state home department for introduction of e-challan system and it has been approved. We are hoping to introduce the system by 2018,” DCP Amanjeet Kaur said.
The e-challan is an electronic format of a regular challan, which is basically a receipt for payment or delivery.
Besides enabling traffic offenders to pay fines by swiping debit or credit cards on the spot or online, it will also help the traffic police to maintain a database of traffic violations and keep track of habitual offenders.
For e-challan, the department plans to begin with a few machines on trial basis. Currently only cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Vijayawada, Jalandhar, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Pune have the system.
Envisaged as part of modernisation plan for better control of traffic in the city, the proposal to introduce the system was mooted in 2015 before the police commissionerate came into being.