Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Amol Kolhe has criticised the Mumbai Traffic Police for their approach to traffic fine collection. Kolhe's criticism came after he was stopped by a female traffic police officer and asked to pay a fine online for his vehicle, which has 15 pending e-challans worth Rs 16,900.
In a tweet, Kolhe said that he was "shocked" by the incident and that the traffic police were "harassing" him. He also questioned the need for such a large number of e-challans.
“I experienced something very shocking. A lady police officer from the Mumbai Traffic Police stopped my car and asked to pay the fine online. While checking her mobile, I saw a message in the form of an order that said ₹25,000 to be collected from at least 20 vehicles," Mr Kolhe wrote.
He then criticised the government and the traffic police for this behavior.
"There are 652 traffic junctions in Mumbai. 25,000x652 = Rs 1,63,00,000 per day, which is a whopping Rs 1.63 crore in Mumbai alone. What about other cities? If the concerned ministers or officials disclose, the public will know whether the traffic department is being used for recovery rather than traffic regulation," he added.
Following Mr Kolhe's tweet, the Mumbai Traffic Police (MTP) revealed that his vehicle has accumulated overdue fines from 15 e-challans, amounting to a total of ₹16,900.
The Mumbai Traffic Police also commented at Mr Kolhe's tweet by saying that "more than 1.31 crore e-challans in the city of Mumbai for violating the Motor Vehicle Act have a fine amount of over Rs 685 crore pending since January 1, 2019. A penalty collection drive is undertaken on weekends to collect this penal amount for the government and to enforce traffic discipline among motorists who violate traffic rules."
"Being a responsible public representative, we are expected to get factual information from the supervisory authorities before broadcasting such a confusing message on social media," Mumbai traffic police added.
