Punjab-Haryana HC moved over traffic fine utilisation

Six police commissioners have sought permission from the Punjab and Haryana High Court to utilise the fines collected from traffic rule violators, a police official said here Tuesday.

Justice Rajive Bhalla issued directions to chief secretaries and home secretaries of Punjab and Haryana for consideration and appropriate response to queries by the senior police officials for using money collected as fines from motorists for traffic violations.

Bharti Arora, joint commissioner of police Gurgaon, told IANS that the police chiefs have sought permission to utilise the collected amount for providing basic infrastructure like signage and education of the public.

Gurgaon traffic police have collected over Rs.7 crore from more than three lakh traffic rule violators till Nov 20. In 2012, 2011 and 2010, the collected amount was over Rs.8 crore, Rs.5 crore and Rs.3 crore, respectively, Arora said.

Rajbir Deswal, commissioner of police Ambala-Panchkula, A.S. Chawala, commissioner of police Faridabad and Bharti Arora, joint commissioner of police Gurgaon, told the court that they have just 42, 199 and 347 policemen, respectively, to control traffic in their cities.

Amritsar Commissioner of Police J.S. Aulakh, his Ludhiana counterpart P.S. Gill and Jalandhar Commissioner of Police Ram Singh also told the same court they had just 174, 257 and 188 policemen, respectively, to manage traffic.

The court directed the authorities "to consider the posting of additional police personnel" in these cities.

It said "presence of police personnel at vantage points was more important than issuing challans".

The court said there were no CCTV cameras, and traffic signages were "inadequate", traffic lights "were not synchronized" and the municipal corporations, the urban development authorities in Punjab and Haryana responsible for affixing signages, "do not perform their duties".

Justice Bhalla said the commissioners of police told the court that they do not have sufficient resources to provide basic infrastructure regarding traffic regulations.

It said the police officials requested that the fines collected on account of traffic violations should be made available to the police for ensuring adequate infrastructure like signage and education of the public.

The court set Dec 20 as the date for the next hearing.