The Maharashtra Highway Traffic Police have recovered e-challan dues worth ₹70.17 crore for 14.28 lakh e-challans issued across the state within a month’s time with the help of Lok Adalat. The violators were issued notices to appear before Lok Adalat and those who failed to do so will have to face the prosecution before a regular court.
According to the state traffic police officials, last month, the highway traffic police served the pre-litigation notices to motorists who defaulted on their e-challan dues for traffic violations, asking them to be present before the Lok Adalat on March 12. The notices, which were served by SMS on their registered mobile numbers, allowed the violator to download the notice on their device.
While the owners of 80.66 lakh vehicles were served these notices, the total e-challan of these motorists was worth to the tune of ₹2.36 crore. An official added that the collective campaign of these pending e-challan stands at ₹996.85 crore.
From the inception of e challan system in Maharashtra in 2019, till February this year, over 3.18 crore e-challans were unpaid worth a whopping ₹1,332 crore.
The Highway traffic police began the exercise of bringing motorists to the Lok Adalat in September last year and another was carried out in December 2021, wherein an amount of Rs 51.01 crore was recovered. Since the beginning of e challan system, the highway traffic police have executed 5.24 crores of e-challans of which 2.05 crore fines collectively amounted to Rs 682 crore were paid.
After the success of Lok Adalat, it was observed that this method proved to be a good option to recover pending fines as violators paid the fines as directed. Earlier, the notices were being sent via post and no response was being received.
