THE CHANDIGARH traffic police has a new challenge at hand: how to dispose of around 56,000 traffic violation information slips (TVIS) or postal challans. The traffic police had issued a total of 74,561 postal challans in the last one year since the implementation of e-challan system in the city on September 5, 2018. But people are not coming forward for the 56,000 slips despite the police taking several measures, including sending messages to the offenders.
One of the reasons for traffic cops not being able to reach the owners of motor vehicles caught on the wrong side of law on roads is the absence of full details, including contact numbers, mail IDs, updated registration addresses of vehicle owners with the registration and licensing authorities concerned.
SSP (traffic) Shashank Anand said, “We observed that vehicle owners have not updated their addresses and contact numbers in the records of RLAs. If the database with registration authorities has 100 per cent entries of mobile numbers, compliance with TVISes will increase. We have also appealed to the RLA officials of other states, including Haryana, Himachal, Punjab and Delhi, to update all relevant information of vehicle owners. Last week, we sent messages on the mobile phones of 35,000 people against whom TVISes were pending. Since then we have received an overwhelming response and around 2,000 people, including from other states, have disposed of their slips.”
Sources said earlier, TVISes were issued against motorists with Tricity registration numbers. However, since last year, the traffic police has been sending the slips against motorists of other states, including Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and even faraway districts of Haryana and Punjab.
TVISes were issued against motor vehicles caught on CCTV cameras flouting traffic rules. Alert citizens too sent images of the vehicles on the Facebook, Twitter accounts of the traffic police or the traffic police’s WhatsApp number. Maximum TVISes were issued for without helmet driving, incomplete registration number plates, and disregarding zebra crossing.
Strict compliance
The UT traffic police has stressed compliance with the already existing provision of not issuing a no-objection-certificate for any motor vehicle against which any challan or TVIS is pending. RLAs of Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab and other states are coordinating among themselves to ensure compliance with this provision.
Wrong TVISes
Cases of TVISes issued to wrong vehicles too have come to notice. Three days ago, a man took up on Twitter account of SSP Shashank Anand the matter of a TVIS issued against the registration number of his car for without helmet driving. Another two-wheeler owner highlighted the similar mistake. SSP Shashank Anand said, “Fair hearings are being given in these cases. It is mentioned in TVISes that incorrect slips will be corrected.”