Team-BHP - Maharashtra increases traffic fines threefold!

Hi all,

Just came across an article in Times.

Drunk driving in Maharashtra can land you in jail - India - The Times of India

As per the article, other than the drunken driving, which is its main focus, other traffic fines have been increased 3 fold. Also, similar to drunken driving, offences like rash driving, road rage would also land the offender in jail.

What I think is, rather than stopping the drunken driving, this rash driving clause will give Mamas another tool to harass motorists to extract "huge" fines. It is not uncomman to see this as one of the false reason written on the fines receipts that they write.

What are your views?

Without driver education nothing holds good. The root of the problem should be fixed first followed by penalty, without the roots nothing can grow good.

Why not clean up the RTO first followed by such moves?
Why not enforce stringent laws towards driving school?

Because, the above two are difficult to implement than increasing fine. Now its even easier for lower level cops to make quick money, no bargains required :Frustrati

A move in the right step, but I am afraid it won't have the consequences that it has been aimed for. Only the wallets of the pandus will get fatter, if nothing else. I would like to see rules like temporary suspension of licenses on breaking signals, driving on wrong way, lane cutting, etc and permanent suspension on big crimes like drunken driving.

I would say a step taken half way in the right directions. It will have it pros and cons. In one way it will instill some kind of a fear of paying heavy fines is found on thw wrong side of law. On the other hand it has given a freehand to the traffic police an oppurtunity to start fleecing people on some pretext:deadhorse.

Before these could have been brought into effect, a thorough cleaning of the system rot in the RTO should have been done. An eye opener law should have been formulated for the people to realize the effects of any kind of violations of traffic rules and regulations.

Take the the case of drunken driving of Nooria on Mumbai streets when she mowed down a few people & was in the headlines for sometimes a few weeks back. Had there been a harsher punishment applied at that point of time and instantly, it would have been taken as an example. I would not surprised if the lady is released in due course of time and resumes driving on Mumbai roads putting again people at risk:Frustrati.

My 2 cents:
1. The fines, although increased threefold, are still NOT prohibitive enough for the rash subsection of the rich.
2. The low and middle-income groups which drive (this includes auto and cab drivers among others) would learn after paying once or twice as the fine would be sizeable for them.
3. I wish, the fine for rash driving, lane-cutting, ignoring signals would be at least 1000 Rs for first instance and double up for every subsequent violation to act as deterent.

I am not much concerned about the traffic cops becoming richer. Because even in that case, the traffic becomes slightly more desciplined.

How about the traffic police officially getting a %age of the fines they collect and the additional revenue for the govt. can be at least partially spent on driver education and better control systems (e.g. photograph and video equipment to provide evidence of violations as well as to curtail corrption)?

Quote:

Originally Posted by COUGAR (Post 2013724)

its guys breaking the rules who should be worried.

Those who dont drink and drive and drive soberly have nothing to fear.

Oh no its those guys who need to fear the most from the drunken guys coz they might be their next target. :eek:

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDP (Post 2012622)

I am not much concerned about the traffic cops becoming richer. Because even in that case, the traffic becomes slightly more desciplined.

How about the traffic police officially getting a %age of the fines they collect and the additional revenue for the govt. can be at least partially spent on driver education and better control systems (e.g. photograph and video equipment to provide evidence of violations as well as to curtail corrption)?

+1 to the above.

Corruption is the secondary problem when it comes to increased fine. The main problem is the incredibly lack of discipline in the road users and I mean everyone, even pedestrians. Increasing the fine should definitely help and giving cops incentive would help those fines to be applied in all places and not only in the bigger towns. Sure misuse of the system will exist but it might be a better the traffic discipline.

PS: Hope they make driving on the wrong side of the road a non-bailable offense soon. Not kidding.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDP (Post 2012622)

I am not much concerned about the traffic cops becoming richer. Because even in that case, the traffic becomes slightly more desciplined.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hell_raiser (Post 2014127)

The main problem is the incredibly lack of discipline in the road users and I mean everyone, even pedestrians. Increasing the fine should definitely help

Well, what I have seen most of the time is, the traffic police is mostly busy with their challans and checking outstate vehicles in Pune and taking bribes on one pretext or the other. I don't think this will improve traffic discipline but just more corruption.

And when we talk of photographs and evidences of breaking the law similar to western countries, we are talking of huge investments. Here we don't have good roads due to lack of funds and we are dreaming of these advanced ways of catching the people:D

I am all for this move. This is certainly welcome move.

And for those cribbing about increasing corruption, the corruption takes place more because people break the rules and then try to grease palms of policeman to get away with lesser fine. More than 80% of cases (or even more?), police can extract money because one has jumped signal, doesn't have PUC, entering 1-way from wrong direction, drinking under influence.

One good example that comes to mind is PUC certificate. Since police can fine up to Rs. 1000 for PUC certificate (and hence, can demand more money as bribe), most vehicle owners are quite particular with PUC compliance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RX135 (Post 2016466)

I think I will agree to this. When you talk about speeding or traffic rule violation, people, here, first talk about the hefty fine. 180$ , 220$ etc.. Then they talk about being arrested :D. So back in India as long as this gets implemented correctly, rest assured we can see a decent lot on the roads. Even if someone wants to grease palms, the same palms which used to get greased with 100 bucks are not going to accept just one bill of 100. Its going to be more.

I would say a welcome move but as already stated previously, only half a step in the right direction. What we need is a driver education system and stricter norms for license issuing. Thats the only way the traffic situation can improve in this country.

I would say it's a welcome move. On my daily drive I am seeing a lot of drivers who are simply trying to be smart at signals because they either see no cops around or don't care about a paltry Rs. 50/- fine. Now that the fines have been increased, I am expecting to see policemen present at most important signals and junctions to ramp up their revenues. This should help curb the errant drivers.

If you paid off Rs. 50/- earlier, you will have to fork out Rs. 150/- now, whether you are paying legal fines or illegal ones. For this very reason I wish the fines were increased five-fold.

In my twelve years of driving I have yet to see a cop pull me up for an offence I haven't committed.