Bengalureans shell out 5.6 cr after 50% rebate on traffic penalties

Bengaluru: Bengalureans paid more than Rs 5.6 crore on various offences by taking advantage of the 50% discount offer on payment of unpaid fines for traffic violations. Due to the government's announcement of a 50% reduction on Thursday, the amount actually collected was just half of the original penalty. The offer is available till February 11.

According to Special Traffic Police Commissioner MA Saleem, more than Rs 5.6 crore in fines for more than 2 lakh traffic offences have been paid as of Friday at 7:55 p.m. Nearly Rs 2.2 crore at 48 traffic police stations., Rs 3.2 crore via online methods, Rs 19 lakh through Bangalore One, and Rs 1.4 lakh at the traffic management centre, he said.

"The receipts belong to my family members. Through the press, I learned about the concession. In my combined family, there are almost ten two-wheelers, and the majority of the infractions involved riding without a helmet. To pay the fine, I brought the challans and other documents. The whole fine was Rs. 11,000, and if everything goes as planned, I'll pay Rs. 5,500 and save the rest," said a resident of South Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, Karnataka police organised a "police hackathon" on Saturday and Sunday to use cutting-edge technologies in their operations and create new tools to combat problems like cybercrime. 10,000 students and professionals from 4,000 startups are expected to attend the hackathon, which will be held at the International Institute of Information Technology in Electronics City.

"We'll look for better answers to the problems we encounter. We might ask participants to create a tool that helps law enforcement locate linkages to suspect bank accounts. We are searching for better methods for detecting fraud in apps, a crowdsourcing solution for records, and AI face detection, among other things," explained a senior IPS official.