Govt vehicles default on fine payment; traffic authorities unconcerned

Hyderabad: It has come to light that two government vehicles that were fined Rs 13,990 for traffic violation continue to ply on the road without paying the fine.

According to Hyderabad’s traffic website statistics, AP09CT9090 was issued E-challan 11 times since 2017 for over-speeding. It belongs to Secretary of Andhra Pradesh Information department. The total fine amount to be paid by the owner of the vehicle is around Rs. 11,785.

Another government vehicle, AP09CW0333, which belongs to the Legislative Assembly, has been issued e-challan thrice and the amounting of fine stands at Rs. 2,205.

According to Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, if the fine amount is not paid within seven days of the issue of notice, the vehicle owner will be further fined Rs. 500 or be imprisoned for three months. If more than three challans are issued, the vehicle can be detained. But no such actions have been taken even though 11 e-challans are pending. This has expectedly angered the public.

Hyderabad based activist Sai Teja said, “As per Section 177 of MV Act, a sub-inspector of police and above rank officer has powers to check vehicles on the field. All violations in these cases pertain to over-speeding. No one is above law.”

Another citizen Satish Kalasi took to twitter and said, “It is not just on common citizens. Please take immediate action on these violations. Don’t Govt vehicles fall under Law? Irony is these vehicles are being used by Telangana Law dept. It's high time authorities to wake up.”

Data sourced from Cyberabad Commissionaire through an RTI, shows that the Cyberabad comissionerate is still to collect Rs.71 crore fines from traffic violations. Sai Teja said, “I feel that most of the vehicles, may be government owned.”