Soon, an end to traffic policemen pocketing money

Thursday, Oct 21, 2010



Their monthly earning was a whopping R45 lakh. And all they had to do was bend some rules and look the other way. All this was going on smoothly for many years until the lid came off this scam when 70 goods carriers of a cola major were grounded by the Delhi traffic police recently. The traffic police was making anywhere between R500 and R1,000 per goods vehicle by slapping them fines for a compoundable offence that requires confiscation of driving licence. But for this amount the police chose to ignore the rule and let them go.

At least 300 goods vehicles are fined in the city every day.

This was brought to the notice of senior officers who then issued a new circular.

According to the circular issued, it has been clarified that traffic policemen did not have any power to accept fine from goods vehicles at the spot. For this offence the person has to go to the court.

A compoundable offence can only be paid in court.

Driving on dedicated lanes in New Delhi during the recently concluded Commonwealth Games was a compoundable offence where driving licenses were also seized. Only the court has the power to release them.

"The new circular requires policemen to send the challan amount to court and not accept them at the spot," said joint commissioner of police (traffic), Satyendra Garg.

"The traffic policemen were accepting the fines from goods vehicles at the spot for a consideration. They used to fine the driver and accept R500-R1,000 extra for not confiscating their driving licence. Otherwise the driver would have to go to court to get his papers back, thus wasting at least a day," said a senior traffic police officer.

The officials of the cola major complained to the police that their supply was being hit as the police had challaned them for various offences and confiscated their licenses.

"When enquiries were made it was found that earlier the drivers used to pay money to the traffic officials, get challaned and then carry on. But with the new order the traffic policemen were not able to do so and the vehicles were grounded forcing the top brass to approach the police headquarters," said the officer.

Police said they would soon begin a crackdown on the errant policemen, as there was no record of the illegally stashed money.

Original news source http://www.hindustantimes.com/Soon-an-end-to-traffic-policemen-pocketing-money/Article1-616117.aspx