The Bengaluru Traffic Police and Karnataka government’s initiative to provide a 50% discount in traffic fines till February 11 turned out to be a success on Saturday, February 4, the first day since the initiative was announced. As of Saturday evening, the police collected over Rs 13.81 crore in collections from 4.77 lakh cases of violations. On February 3, the state Transport Department issued an order saying that traffic fines would be slashed by 50% till February 11.
According to The Hindu, the department stated that 80% of the state’s pending traffic cases are with the Bengaluru traffic police, amounting to about Rs 500 crore in collections from approximately 2 crore cases. Several police stations, as well as the Traffic Management Centre on Infantry Road, saw massive crowds as people rushed to pay the discounted fines. Motorists have the option of paying the pending dues via PayTM, the KarnatakaOne website, the Traffic Management Centre in Bengaluru or the nearest police station. The decision to announce such a scheme was taken following a meeting convened by the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority.
Earlier in January, the Bengaluru Traffic Police levied a fine of Rs 1.4 crore on the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) for traffic violations over the last three years. Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Dr MA Saleem has written to the managing directors of the corporations in this connection. He told Deccan Herald that the most common traffic violations committed by BMTC and KSRTC drivers include wrong and haphazard parking, jumping the signal, overspeeding and rash driving. He added that police don’t stop buses even in case of visible traffic violations since doing so will inconvenience the passengers. Acknowledging the letter, BMTC replied stating that the fines would be deducted from the drivers’ salaries.