Traffic police mull awareness drive on new fine structure

Kolkata: Kolkata Traffic Police is mulling to arrange workshops and launch awareness drive to educate drivers about the new set of traffic fines which have been amended by the Centre. However, the fine structure will not be implemented in Bengal for the time being, as the fine amounts are quite high.

According to sources, a few months ago when the Centre decided to amend the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, police were waiting to see the changes. After the Bill got passed in the Parliament, a gazette notification was made by the Centre, where it was mentioned that implementation of the new fine structure will be decided by the state governments. If any state does not wish to implement the amended fine structure, it will not be forced.

According to Kolkata Traffic Police officials, they were waiting for the gazette notification by the state government. However, police officials were also worried about imposing fines of such amounts.

Sources claimed that though no gazette notification has been made, Kolkata Traffic Police were mulling to make people aware about the upcoming fine structure.

There are probabilities of confrontation between traffic police and traffic violators, owing to the exorbitantly high fine amounts. "Paying Rs 100 for a violation and paying Rs 1,000 for the same offence along with disqualification of licence for three months are not the same. Sergeants might face problem if the new set of fines are introduced. However, if the gazette notification comes out, we will have to implement it. Therefore we are thinking about launching an awareness drive," said a senior traffic police official.

According to sources, the new set of fines will not be introduced from September due to the high fine amounts. "We can do something regarding the issue only after gazette notification is made.

Such initiatives may be taken if found necessary in future," said Pandey Santosh, Deputy Commissioner (Traffic) of Kolkata Police.