Mangaluru: Now, paying fine for traffic violations, detected by automation centre at Kadri traffic police station with the help of CCTV cameras installed in Mangaluru police commissionerate limits, has been made a lot easier.
Under a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed between the Mangaluru police commissionerate and Department of Posts Mangaluru division on Monday, a first such initiative in Karnataka, the fine amount for the traffic violations within the commissionerate limits can be paid at any post office in Dakshina Kannada district and across Karnataka.
Even owners of vehicles from outside the district, who receive notices from the automation centre for violating the traffic rules in the commissionerate limits, need not come to Mangaluru but, can pay at any post office across the state.
“There are 1,702 post offices across Karnataka, including 126 in DK district and 62 in Udupi district,” Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Mangaluru Division, Shriharsha N said.
Presently, traffic offenders receiving challan notices, via post, have to pay fine amount within a week at any traffic police station (Kadri, Pandeshwar, Surathkal and Naguri) or at Mangaluru one centres (Mallikatte, Lalbagh, Bavutagudde and Surathkal). The online option, by logging onto mangalore.gov.in, was declared as not customer friendly due to inherent flaws in the system.
Thanks to the MoA, a traffic offender on receiving the fine challan notice can walk to the nearest post office submit the challan and pay the fine amount.
The payment can also be made through QR code scanning, Shriharsha said.
“Even without the challan, vehicle owner can pay fine amount by mentioning the vehicle registration number,” Shriharsha added.
A vehicle owner can also clear previously pending notices in phased manner. Customers can also check for previous fine amounts during the sale of vehicles.
A service charge in the range from Rs 10 to Rs 25 will be collected from the traffic offenders.
“Fines for traffic violations received under ePayment service at post offices will be transmitted online to Mangaluru Police server through API integration,” Assistant Superintendent of Post Offices Srinath N B said.
Addl CCTV cameras to be installed
Mangaluru Commissioner of Police N Shashikumar, after launching the posters about the facility on social media, told mediapersons that enforcement of traffic rules would be via automation.
He said barring elderly citizens, people across all ages violate the traffic rules. “The automation centre daily, on an average, generates about 150 traffic violation challans,” he said and urged the Department of Posts to reduce the service charge.
He said that tenders had been floated to install additional CCTV cameras at 97 places in Mangaluru police commissionerate limits at a total cost of Rs one crore. DCP (Law and Order) Anshu Kumar, ACP (Traffic) Geetha D Kulkarni among others were present.