Traffic police begin random vehicle checks to recover pending fines

Police also believe that bringing back the old method will also enforce discipline and prevent traffic accidents

Bengaluru traffic police will resume random checking to recover Rs 390 crore from 95 lakh violations in the last three years.

From Monday, police began stopping vehicles randomly across the city since motorists carrying fines on their vehicles did not respond to notices. The random checking had been stopped since it caused traffic jams and slowed down vehicular movement.

Motorists welcomed random checking for a short period until the traffic police recovered the due amount. But they cautioned that continuing the process would create more traffic jams since the vehicle population has exploded in the city in the last three years.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B R Ravikanthe Gowda issued an order to traffic police to stop vehicles randomly and check if there are pending cases against the motorists and recover the money if it is spot fine.

He said that police were booking cases through contactless enforcing cameras, public eye and field traffic violation report (FTVR) in the last three years. Notices have been sent to the registered addresses, but very few responded. If people want to avoid the inconvenience of random checking, he urged the violators to pay the pending fines.

Police also believe bringing back the old method will also enforce discipline and prevent traffic accidents.

“I use my bike during peak hours, going to the office and returning home.

If the police stop me to check and collect fines, it will cause more traffic jams,” said Ramesh, a government employee.

Financial difficulties due to pandemic

“It is also not a good idea to do this when people have financial difficulties due to the pandemic. They should have conducted such campaigns for two weeks in a year to collect fines instead of doing it three years later,” Ramesh said.

Suresh, who works with a garment factory, said he lost his job during the lockdown and is yet to recover from the financial troubles.

“They now want to harass people like me in the name of fines. Let them do the recovery next year. I am sure police will harass us even if there are no fines,” he said.