Pune's traffic police are attributing an increase in fines to a drop in the number of fatal mishaps - from 247 in 2018 and 289 in 2017, to 206 in 2019, according to the annual report submitted by the traffic police department to the government.
Of the 206 fatal deaths, 74 persons were pedestrians, who were knocked down by vehicles, according to data.
Additional commissioner Sanjay Shinde, incharge of traffic branch, said, "The number of fatal accidents has come down due to strict enforcement of traffic laws and action against traffic violators. The traffic branch is taking the necessary steps to control traffic and reduce the number of accidents in the city."
" We are imposing fines on traffic violators, heavy vehicles are banned in city limits due to a specific period and we are working on other initiatives along with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). We will continue to take efforts to reduce the number of accidents in the city," said Shinde.
Public awareness, long-term measures a must, says activist
Prashant Inamdar, convenor, Pedestrian First, said the imposing fine is punitive action and it will serve the purpose only to a certain extent. "The strength of the police workforce is less and they will not be able to take action at every nook and corner of the city. They are imposing fines based on CCTV footage and so they are not able to collect the fine amount. They should work on creating awareness among the residents."
"Long terms measures like introducing traffic rules to students in schools should be implemented to change the mindset of people towards traffic rules, only the city rods will be safe for all to use," said Inamdar.
Only 30 per cent of fines recovered from violators in 2019
The Pune traffic branch which levied fines of Rs 111 crore against 27.59 lakh traffic violators in 2019, has been able to recover only 30 per cent of the amount, according to an annual report submitted by the traffic police department to the government.
Out of 111 crore, Rs 1,75,000 has been recovered from helmetless riders.
Shinde said that the police had taken steps like sending e-challans and conducting nakabandi operations to recover the pending dues. "The traffic police track violators through traffic policemen deployed on the city roads as well as the CCTV system which feeds live updates to a control room at the traffic department at police commissioner's office through over 1,200 cameras," said additional commissioner Sanjay Shinde, incharge for traffic branch.
"The unpaid dues are majorly from the CCTV cases as the system notifies the violators through SMS," said Shinde.
As many as 11 lakh violators were fined in 2018 and a fine of Rs 22.50 was imposed, while in 2017 8 lakh violators were fined an amount of Rs 1.30 crore in different violations of traffic rules.