Complaints against traffic police reduce

Mumbai: The number of complaints received by Mumbai Traffic Police (MTP) against traffic cops has come down from 928 in October 2016 to 632 in the corresponding period.

Sources said that since the e-challan system of collecting cashless fines was put in place a year ago, the number of complaints have decreased.

The traffic officials claim that new gadgets help them complete the work on time, without any hazards.

The MTP’s efforts of introducing various gadgets and technology were with a simple aim of reducing corruption allegations and complaints put on them by the citizens, which was indeed lauded.

The joint commissioner of police (Traffic) Amitesh Kumar had filed an affidavit in July in the court laying down several steps that have already been taken to curb the corruption in the traffic police department and to ensure transparency after a retired police constable Sunil Toke alleged rampant corruption in the police department.

Mr Kumar told The Asian Age, “The new technology used to curb corruption has been put in place, and with time it has given out good results too.”

Reverting to cash

The progressive system of e-challan has failed to meet the expected success, as the Mumbai Traffic Police is now collecting fines in cash and impounding licenses. Initiated in November last year, the e-challan system of Mumbai’s Traffic Police (MTP) began with the aim of going cashless, so as to bypass corruption in the department. But the system seems to have developed some glitches along the road.  With the introduction of the e-challan system in November last year, the Mumbai traffic police (MTP) had stopped seizing the licence of traffic violators and instead, issued e-challans, which they were expected to pay via debit or credit card on the spot, or at the nearest Vodafone store.

The falling recovery rate is due to many reasons, one of which is that users fail to receive e-challans as their contact numbers have not been updated with the Regional Transport Office (RTO).

By going the old-school way of collecting fines in cash and impounding licenes, the recovery rate is expected to rise by a good 20 per cent at
least.