Traffic violators in a fine mess

Mumbai: The Centre’s demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes has had a curious impact on Mumbai’s commuters — the Mumbai traffic police is not accepting Rs 500 notes while charging fines and is instead confiscating the licences of those who flout rules. The violators are given a receipt that says they will get their licence back when they get change from a bank.

Murad T, a resident of Chembur, was driving without wearing helmet while on his way to a bank to exchange notes on Friday morning. Two traffic policemen stopped him near Sion’s Kumbharwada bridge for helmetless driving. But Mr Murad said when he was ready to pay a fine of Rs 200, the policemen didn’t accept it and instead seized his licence because they didn’t want to accept a Rs 500 note.

Mr Murad said, “I was asked to pay Rs 200. I told them that I have only notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 and was going to the bank to change them. They asked me to submit my license and come back once I had changed notes. I was waiting near IDBI bank for almost three hours but I couldn’t change the notes because bank didn’t have enough notes. So I went back to the traffic policemen and narrated the whole incident, but they didn’t listen to me and gave me a receipt, asked me to got to the local traffic department whenever I managed to get change and collect the seized license. I saw them doing the same with other drivers too.”

Another commuter, Arshad Shrivastav, also had his licence seized in South Mumbai for driving without wearing a helmet. “We were two riders and both didn’t wear helmets, so I told the traffic policemen that you are government servants and should accept the Rs 500 note. The fine was Rs 400 for both of us but they didn’t accept that note and seized our licence.”

Traffic police PRO T. Koregaokar said, “It’s a regular practice that if commuters don’t have money, we seize their licence and ask them to collect it from the office. As for these particular incidents, I have to check what exactly happened.”