Odisha collected Rs 1 crore traffic fine in 2 months: Minister

The Odisha government has collected more than Rs 1 crore as traffic penalty in two months since the implementation of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 in the state, a senior minister said on Thursday.

Replying to a written question in the state Assembly, Commerce and Transport Minister Padmanav Behera said that the penalty amount was collected in September and October.

The state government had implemented the Act on September 1, but deferred it till December 6 because of the public resentment against it due to high penalty amounts.

He said Rs 46 lakh penalty was collected from 5,317 persons for driving without driving license while 2,111 persons had paid Rs 13.7 lakh for driving without insurance.

An amount of Rs 38.16 lakh was collected from 1,177 vehicle owners for not having pollution under control (PUC) certificates and 490 people were penalised for drunken driving and Rs 7.38 lakh was collected from them, Behera said.

Odisha had collected the highest amount of fine from traffic violators, by issuing 4,080 challans amounting to Rs 88.9 lakh, in just four days since the implementation of the Act.

Haryana had trailed Odisha by collecting Rs 52.32 lakh fine from 3,900 traffic violators.