Police to recover traffic penalties by seizing vehicles, visiting houses

With many vehicle owners refusing to honour notices for traffic offences, the city police will soon launch a campaign to recover the penalties by seizing the vehicles either on the roads or by visiting their houses. Over the last few days, the police have been booking people for traffic offences through hand-held cameras, interceptors and CCTV cameras installed at various locations and sending the Field Traffic Violation Record (FTVR) notices to their respective addresses. Though the police resorted to “contactless” booking of cases to avoid the prospect of arguments and counter-arguments that arise when cases are booked on the spot, many FTVR notices have been disregarded by the traffic offenders. While sources in the Police Department say barely 20% of the offenders pay the penalty, a statement from the Mysuru police said there are at least 7,500 vehicles with more than 20 pending cases of traffic violations against each of them as on May 20, 2017. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Crime) N. Rudramani told The Hindu they will give the traffic offenders a week’s time to pay off their outstanding penalties. Or else, we will start visiting their houses to seize the vehicles and recover their dues, he said. The police appealed to the traffic offenders to voluntarily visit the police stations and pay their dues. Though it is possible that many two-wheelers are unaware of the cases booked against them particularly if their present addresses are not updated with the Transport Department, the police officials said the number of pending cases against their vehicles can be checked with either the traffic police or by visiting Karnataka One portal. Vehicles owners can access the portal at www.karnatakaone.gov.in and register themselves before clicking on Mysore under ‘city wise services’ and proceeding to ‘collection of fine for traffic violation’. The portal offers vehicle owners to pay their fine online by clicking either the notice number or the registration number of your vehicle.