In a drive to recover pending fines that are amounting to over Rs 300 crore, the city traffic police has started a unique initiative. They will be going door-to-door to recover the fine amount every fortnight. So far, the cops have collected over Rs 1 crore.
A senior traffic official said that a team of 100 constables, two from each traffic chowky, have been trained to visit violators. They have been trained to speak politely and courteously with the offenders. Armed with body cameras, the police either issue the offenders a notice or collect the pending fine.
Joint commissioner of police (traffic) Yashasvi Yadav said that a team of two policemen wearing body cameras approach the violators. The body camera records their interactions. “They have been given an e-challan machine and debit/credit card machine to collect fines if the violator is willing to pay on the spot. If not, the policemen can issue them a legal notice, reminding them of the pending fines, failing which they will have to face action. In some cases, the violator promises to pay in a couple of days or a week, wherein appropriate follow up will be carried out,” Yadav said. This initiative has garnered a positive response and more fines will be recovered soon.
In the last fortnight, the traffic police has recovered over Rs 1 crore, an official said. Most of the pending fines were recovered from Mankhurd traffic division, wherein an average of Rs 1 lakh was collected per day during the drive, followed by Borivli.
Besides the door-to-door recovery, the call centre started by the Mumbai traffic police has also yielded a great response and has recovered over Rs 20 crore in fines.
