The violation of traffic/transport rules in the city is glaring if the penalties collected by the Transport Department were any indication. The Transport Department collected a whopping Rs.1.6 crore as penalty in July from the errant vehicle users in 7,800 cases.
Of this amount more than Rs.38 lakh is paid by the auto drivers alone. About one-third of these people has no interest in obtaining licence and necessary certificates like fitness. They prefer paying penalties rather than obtaining licenses. This is rule of the road and holds good even for non-professionals.
The transport officials found that most of the auto drivers of all kinds do not have a badge, a number etc. that is mandatory for driving auto in the city. Most of the drivers do not apply for fitness certificate and have not paid the insurance as well.
About 8,600 autos were permitted to ply on city roads and the Transport Department has not been issuing permissions for new autos. Half of these vehicles do not have fitness certificates. Around 30,000 people eke out livelihood plying autos in the city.
“The fitness certificate will not cost much and need to take it only once in a year, but, they show little interest in obtaining them,” says Deputy Transport Commissioner A. Mohan. When caught, they simply pay the penalty and vanish. A very bad trend has set in the city.
