Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Street Experiences (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/)

-   -   Mumbai: No cash payments for traffic fines from 12th January 2016 (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/172113-mumbai-no-cash-payments-traffic-fines-12th-january-2016-a.html)

The Mumbai Traffic Police will stop accepting fines in cash from January 12, 2016. Offenders will have to swipe their credit or debit card to pay fines. The scheme is expected to be operational all over the city in the next six months.

Constables will be handed more than 1,000 e-challan machines on January 11, which have been rented from private companies. Traffic offenders will be able to pay fines on the spot only by swiping credit / debit cards. A convenience charge of Rs. 9.50 will be levied each time an e-challan is issued. With the new system, the traffic department is hoping to reduce corruption, as well as identify repeat offenders.



Those not carrying a credit / debit card, will be issued an e-challan. The drivers' / riders' details will be entered in the system and they will be given 15 days to pay their fines by approaching a bank or through National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT). Those who do not make the necessary payment in this period, will be charged Rs. 10 for every additional day that the payment is not made. If an offender who has not paid a fine is caught again, his / her licence will be suspended.

The system of swiping credit or debit cards to pay traffic fines was first introduced in Hyderabad (Telangana) in 2014. Online payment of traffic fines is being accepted in some other states as well.

Source: Mid-Day

Not sure if it is smart move to curb the corruption, traffic offenders will still settle it by paying "tips" and get away with it.
In worst scenario, what if e-challan machine fails to operate or the constables gives excuses of finding it heavy to be carried around?

Good initiative...wish this will come to Bangalore as well soon!!
This will reduce bribes and also serial offenders who often escape with 50 or 100 bucks.
At the same time, would like to see the new Transport bill discussed and passed in parliament.

This is good!

This should bring in some level of accountability as well; since everything will be electronically documented. I'd rather pay online than swipe my card; record-keeping is easier.

They should make this standard across the country; at least tier-1 cities.

Precisely my thought as well. In our country, innovation is at its best when it comes to corruption. I am not convinced that this will reduce corruption.

+1, Do you think by banning payment in cash, a corrupt policeman would never take cash? What-an-idea-sirji is this? Other way around, going this way, govt is making it hard for genuine folks to pay fine.
BTW what is the rule on DL suspension here? It may not be always true that the "former" offense for which e-challan is pending payment, was done by the same driver, who would be charged for latter offense.
And now 9.50 Rs convenience charge? When will I be able to make any transaction by paying its exact amount?

Not all folks using a motor vehicle have credit and debit cards, what then?
This was introduced in Bangalore long long ago and quickly withdrawn as majority of folks refused to pay by card for fear of leaving digital trace. Why not issue a ticket and let the folks pay at the police station or online like it happens any where else in the world? Why reinvent the wheel?

There is a provision for such offenders too.

From the article itself:

Unfortunately, the fine amounts are not that substantial. You can get away with Rs.100 for many offenses - although the payment will have to be done via card/online (which in my opinion is another good excuse for the traffic cop to "settle" offline).

We will have to wait and watch if this new process will reduce corruption. But IMHO a 10 fold increase in fine amounts would have made motorist think twice before breaking a signal or not wearing helmets.

How will this reduce corruption.
If traffic police were giving challan slips but pocketing the money themselves, it would have work, but under this scheme a corrupt cop can still accept cash and put the money in their pocket.
If they want to solve corruption, they should ban pockets, or clothes. No place to hide money.

Agree that this is a somewhat vague idea of curbing corruption, but what you're implying is hilarious.
I just imagined a mamu standing wearing (king) Leonidas' armor and yelling "This is Bengaluruuuu..... This is where we hold them! This is where we fight! This is where they die!" lol:

Certainly useful if violators prefer to pay penalty, but still there is a possibility of compromise. I would feel giving incentives for catching violations in peak hours may increase accountability. Its also high time that traffic people penalise the two wheelers squeezing from left and those who remove rear view mirrors.

Let us keep aside the corruption aspect for a moment.

At the end of the day, every cop (or team) needs to count the cash, tally it with challan and submit a statement of accounts to their chowki. Each chowki in turn has to make a collective single statement, again count the cash and send it to the head office along with the cash. And the head office too will have similar work before they deposit this money in some account of the state Govt.

So directly accepting the money through debit card / NEFT will save the time spent in these activities and free-up the productive time of the cops.

Seems to be a great idea but for the banks and credit card companies. 9.5 Rs per fine as convenience charge will net them a huge amount as revenue, and from a totally new channel. Looks like this is the brain child of one of the banks, definitely not the traffic police.

I am pretty sure this will not reduce corruption in the short term at least, since people will still pay cash to circumvent the system, and I'm sure our friendly cops will gladly oblige. After all, they dont make any money if they insist on this electronic payment mechanism.

However, where this will help is curbing fake receipt books used by some rogue elements as well as better accountability of the funds collected.

I also think that the convenience charge needs to go. Its definitely not convenient for the motorists, and they are not asking for this mechanism, so imposing it on them is unfair, and this could be challenged in a court of law.