New MV Act: At 17,498, October sees more challans than Sept in Chandigarh

Since the amended Motor Vehicle (MV) Act came into force in the city on September 1, the traffic police had increased their focus on spreading awareness, while decreasing the frequency of challaning. While this was expected to bring down the number of violations, yet October saw 11% more challans than September.

Data available with the traffic police says 17,498 challans were issued in October against the 15,771 in September.

Deputy superintendent of police (DSP, traffic administration) Kewal Krishan said the number of challans was high despite police decreasing focus on challaning violators since the second week of October.

“Besides, due to police deployment for the Haryana elections and in markets during the festive season, the number of challaning inspectors was reduced. They are now back to their regular jobs, so a further rise in challans can be expected in November,” he said.

CHALLANS FOR HELMETLESS RIDING DROP BY OVER 50%

While 6,746 challans were issued to two-wheeler riders for not wearing a helmet in September, the number went down by over 50% in October — at 2,995 challans.

Speaking about this, road safety activist Harpreet Singh said, “The harsh penalties for driving without helmet seem to have worked. Now, along with the challan, riders’ driving licence also gets suspended for three months, encouraging people to follow rules. A difference can be seen on the city roads.”

Similarly, despite the festivities, the number of challans issued for drunken driving went down from 272 in September to 212 in October, which officials also attributed to the harsher punishments and the ₹10,000 fine that the violation carried.

However, the festival rush contributed to higher wrong parking violations, going up from 2,283 in September to 3,068 in October.

The number of cars that were clamped also almost doubled from 918 in September to 1,720 in October. The traffic police had launched a drive to clamp vehicles that were parked incorrectly outside markets during the festival season.

1,172 AUTOS CHALLANED FOR DRIVING WITHOUT METER

Following the Punjab and Haryana high court’s orders to the traffic police to issue challans to autos plying without fare meters on October 3, 1,172 challans were issued since October 10.

DSP Krishan said as part of a special drive, auto drivers were asked to switch their meters on and show that they were in working condition.

 COLLECTION DOWN DESPITE MORE CHALLANS

Even though the number of challans has gone up, the fines collected in October went down slightly compared to September. Officials at the challaning branch of the traffic police said the number of challans that were cleared this month was just 6,485, fetching the wing ₹38.75 lakh in fines. In comparison, ₹42.3 lakh was collected in September.