By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The clamping of vehicles in no-parking zones, besides disciplining the erring vehicle owners has also earned the State Government a decent sum of money since its implementation seven months ago.
The Shillong Traffic Police (STP) has collected as much as Rs 2.5 lakh from the fines imposed and the amount has been deposited with the state treasury department.
The zealous implementation of the rule can be derived from the fact even senior police officials like the Additional SP (Traffic) and the Additional Director General of Police were at the receiving end and handed over penalty slips.
“It seems that people have become more aware of the rules and avoid parking their vehicles in no-parking zones except for a few,” Additional SP (Traffic) Steve Rynjah told reporters here on Thursday while adding that with time, the revenue collected through the mechanism has come down.
Rynjah informed that each traffic branch collected between Rs 50 to 60,000 from clamping of vehicles and Sadar Police Station recorded a huge collection amounting to Rs 81,700 during the last seven months.
Speaking on the issue of violation of the Motor Vehicle (MV) Act, Rynjah said the recent detention of 47 modified vehicles with HID lights and silencers resulted in Rs 25,000 collected as fine by the STP. “We have issued enough warnings and now if anyone is caught violating the norms he/she will be arrested and forwarded to court, their vehicle seized and license cancelled for good,” asserted the ASP (Traffic) while cautioning that if anyone tries to procure the license thereafter by illegal means stringent action will be taken against them.
Dwelling on the initiative taken up by the traffic department to police traffic violators, Rynjah said that the recently procured breath analyser has been very handy. The well equipped flying squad is also always ready for action, he added.
He, however, said that with more manpower and advanced equipment like the speed gun (use to track speed of a vehicle), the traffic branch can deliver better and the same has been communicated by the department to the concerned authorities.
