Bhopal: Challan money recovered only in 35% cases despite Integrated Traffic Management System in place

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The CCTV cameras installed at 29 junctions in the city proved to be of little help to prevent people from violating traffic rules. As per data of Bhopal traffic police, of the total challans issued to violators in the city in 2022, the cops managed to penalise only 35 per cent of them.

In all, 1,18,546 challans were issued to violators last year. The traffic police recovered fine in only 42,469 such cases. Senior traffic police officials said a majority of them (51,896) had stopped beyond zebra crossing, due to which they came under CCTV scanner and were booked. The second major offence was that of tripling on two-wheelers, for which 34,036 challans were issued last year. This was followed by 32,614 challans issued to people for not wearing helmets.

Senior traffic police officials said Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) had limitations. They said that the traffic volume was too high in the city and the cameras were not linked to the court. Data of commuters is also not updated in Regional Transport Offices in the city, they added.

When questioned about helmet checking drive launched despite installation of CCTV cameras, officials said owing to shortcomings of ITMS system, Artificial Intelligence has failed to replace manual check drive. They said that manual checking was far more beneficial in clamping down on traffic violators, penalising them and enforcing traffic-appropriate behaviour on commuters.

Privacy breach

Deputy Commissioner of Police (traffic) Hansraj Singh said, “If people’s financial data are linked to police database for automatic detection of fine from their accounts, it would be a violation of right to privacy. Therefore, manual penalisation drives are better.”