On spot payment of challans by traffic police irks commuters

Rangareddy: What appears as a ‘pressuring tool’ to pump revenue instead of regulating traffic to prevent jams, the traffic police especially in Rajendra Nagar area in Rangareddy district found forcing the commuters to pay their pending challans on the spot.

Traffic jams especially at Durga Nagar Cross Roads, Aram Ghar, Shivrampally Kenworth Cross Road, Dairy Farm Cross Roads and Attapur in Rajendra Nagar are a regular scene as the stretch serves as a city’s entry and exiting point for the commuters on the outskirts. Apart from this, Aram Ghar cross road is also known as a hub of drunk-and-drive cases in the Cyberabad limits.

People in Rajendra Nagar found venting frustration on traffic police for harassing the commuters on roads mainly at dairy farm and Aram Ghar cross road in the name of collection challans even for a paltry pending amount of Rs 200-300 mainly to achieve the monthly target.

Finding fault with the way the traffic police in pumping revenue by harassing the commuters, A Mahender, a resident of Mailardevpally said, “Instead of focusing on regulating the traffic to overcome the jams at different junctions in Rajendra Nagar, the traffic police constables at multiple traffic signals found reading the number plates and jotting down the same into their gadgets to find the pending challans before forcing the commuters to pay the dues on the spot.”

“The teams of traffic police constables were deployed at busy junctions as if they were let loose to achieve the monthly target through collecting pending challans,” said Syed Shoukat, another resident.

Abdul Rehman, a resident of Shivrampally said, “Having a mere two challans of Rs 200-300 may attract a police wrath on the roads these days.

Explaining the bitter experience he went through while travelling from dairy farm cross road on Tuesday he said, “While travelling alone on my two wheeler vehicle from Shivrampally to Attapur on Tuesday morning, I took a break at Dairy Farm signal soon after the red signal was blared.”

Wearing a helmet, he said, “I was just waiting for a green signal to head further. However, a police constable standing there approached me and asked to follow him to the side of the road. I was not standing on the wrong side, nor have I flouted any traffic rule while driving my vehicle. When asked about the violation that offended him, the constable said your vehicle carries two challans and you need to pay it immediately.”

“Only after requesting the police official next to the constable that I will pay it later as I am already late to my office, I was allowed to leave the spot but with a warning,” claim Rehman.

When contacted, the Traffic Inspector Rajendra Nagar Traffic Police Station Bose Kiran said, “There is nothing like a fixed target that we often blamed for chasing every month. Generally, the public have a negative image of traffic police and put us in the dock.”