The city police have realised a whopping ₹1.47 crore as fine from traffic rule violators in 2016. They had booked a little over 1.24 lakh cases under various heads.
Majority of the cases pertained to driving without helmet, without licence, over speed and drunken driving, sources said. The cases booked in 2016 using Hand Held Terminal (HHT) devices procured under Traffic Regulatory Management System (TRMS) were less as compared to 2015 when the number of cases booked exceeded 1.41 lakh. Fine amount realised in 2015 was ₹ 1.47 crore.
The city police have from manual booking of traffic rule violation cases to hand-held terminal devices in 2010 when the surveillance cameras-aided TRMS was put in place for better monitoring and to check crimes.
The cameras which covered important traffic junctions and commercial hotspots in the city under the TRMS have stopped functioning in the past three years. The hi-tech TRMS was operational till 2013 after which the chain of cameras at traffic junctions and check-posts became non-functional owing to non-renewal of annual maintenance contract.
The hand-held terminals given to the traffic police personnel are the only ones that continue to function under the TRMS system which for all practical purposes is in a state of limbo. The sources said 70 hand-held terminals were procured under the TRMS of which 25 had become defective. The traffic police personnel were managing with the remaining 45 devices which functions through the wireless system.
The sources said the issue of defective sets was brought to the notice of the city police authorities. Ever since the hand-held terminals were introduced in 2010, the city police have booked 9.27 lakh cases, realising fine amount of Rs. 11.59 crore, the sources said.
