BENGALURU: The Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) have collected over Rs 120 crore in 11 days after the government announced a 50 per cent concession on traffic fines. On the last on Saturday, people paid up pending penalties by standing in long queues in front of the Traffic Management Centre, at police stations and other designated centres.
The total traffic fines collected stood at Rs 1,20,76,44,000, and 41,20,626 cases were closed by the end of the day on Saturday. By 3 pm 10,35,25,000 traffic violation cases had been settled and Rs 102 crore collected.
The penalty payment at the stations was closed at 6 pm on the last day and online fine payment is allowed till 12 midnight. Meanwhile, citizens are requesting the traffic police to extend the date of penalty payment with discount.
During the fine collection campaign a whole new problem has come to light — that of fake number plates. The traffic police have registered about 5,000 complaints from vehicle owners in a week. They have been inundated with complaints of fake number plates and are struggling to rectify the wrong entries for which penalties have already been collected.
Cases of defective or fake number plates are often reported at the time of fine collection and many people were fined for no fault of theirs. Some unscrupulous elements use the registration numbers of others vehicles or manipulate their own registration plates which may be registered to another vehicle owner.
The traffic police have now planned to crack down the rampant of fake number plates and decided to set up a separate team to track down motorists using fake number plates.
Earlier in the day, Dr MA Saleem, Special Commissioner for Traffic, Bengaluru city, said, “On the last day, the traffic police had collected Rs 100 crore on Saturday morning. Right from the first day, we have received good response from the traffic violators. The government allowed to pay fines on 50 per cent as a one-time scheme. As Saturday was the last day, we expect to collect Rs 110 crore in fines by the end of the day”.