Mumbaikars, haven't paid e-challan yet? You could lose your driving licence

Traffic violators who haven't paid e-challan amounts, may face cancellation of their driving licences.

"A total of Rs 280 crore worth e-challans are pending, as the traffic violators, mostly private vehicle owners, have been ignoring the law. Of late, all the divisions in Mumbai traffic police have been asked to conduct random checking of vehicles and collect the pending e-challans," Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Yashasvi Yadav told mid-day.

'Not paid for years'

"We have been told to clear the backlog of e-challans. At present we are focussing on high-end cars as their drivers are among the worst offenders, as their e-challans have not been cleared for years," said an officer with the Bandra traffic division.

Traffic officials randomly stop vehicles and check the status of e-challans. If an e-challan is pending, the driver is told to pay it only through debit or credit card to encourage cashless transaction and avoid corruption. Once the e-challan is paid, the traffic cops give a receipt to violators on the spot.

"Recently we caught a Jaguar driver, whose e-challan was pending. But when we told him to pay it, he said he did not have plastic money, but was willing to pay cash. It is hard to believe that a person driving a high-end car does not have a card," said the officer.

Another senior officer from Mumbai traffic police said, "Most of the pending e-challans are against private cars, as commercial vehicles have to clear their backlogs every year before getting permit sfrom RTO office. The drive to collect pending e-challans is on war footing."

Another traffic officer told mid-day that the violators driving high-end vehicles often say that they have never checked the status of e-challans. Some say they don't have bank accounts, so there is no point of debit/credit cards. "We often have to face the heat of violators as they are not at all ready to clear their e-challans even after they are caught," said another traffic police officer.

Yadav said, "Clearing the backlog of e-challans will generate revenue for the government. We will report those refusing to pay pending e-challans to the RTO to get licences cancelled."

Yadav has also told the traffic officials to conduct an aggressive drive against vehicles having tinted glasses. Recently the Santacruz traffic division removed black film from the car of an actor.

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