One of the daily aspects of life affected by the demonetisation is the collection of fines by the Mumbai traffic police. With cash becoming a precious commodity, the traffic cops have started granting grace periods so that violators can pay the fines as soon as they arrange those in low denomination notes.
Officials said ever since the decision was announced, a frequent appeal made by motorists caught for violations has been that they do not have enough low denomination notes to pay the fines. “Our personnel have been observing this over the past couple of weeks, as most of our fines range between Rs. 100 and Rs. 300. To deal with it, we are giving errant motorists 10-15 days to pay the fines. We confiscate their driving licence during this period, and give them a temporary licence instead,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Milind Bharambe.
The confiscation is a motivation for violators to come up with the fine amount as soon as possible, and most of them reach the traffic police division the same day or within two to three days.
Mr. Bharambe said, “While the amount collected in fines this month has dipped due to the demonetisation, the number of cases has not. We expect the situation to return to normal over the next one month.”
Officials said a lot of offenders had tried to wriggle out of paying the fines, telling the traffic personnel who caught them that they only had a couple of Rs. 100 notes.
However, once such offenders were told to deposit their licences; most of them seemed to have suddenly found enough notes to pay the fines.
