He parks his two-wheeler wherever he wishes. Rules like stopping when the signal turns red, driving within speed limits or wearing a helmet mean nothing to him. Whenever he is stopped by a traffic policeman, he gladly accepts the challan receipt, pockets it and zooms off, only to break another set of traffic rules.
The rider, in a span of four months, has committed 144 violations ? a record of all the violations is stored in the e-challan system. But the violator remains untraceable as he has a temporary registration number plate, police said.
Four months after an e-challan machine, which keeps a record of all offenders, was put to use, the data collected by the Delhi Traffic Police shows that motorists in Delhi are habitual offenders. According to data, 1,968 motorists are repeat offenders. Of them, 150 drivers have repeated an offence more than eight times.
?The top three violators ? the two-wheeler owner with 144 violations, another with 85 violations and the third with 59 violations ? have temporary registration numbers. Among car drivers, the top offender has 17 challans against him,? Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Anil Shukla said.
According to police, one of the reasons to put in place the e-challan machine was to catch repeat offenders. ?Earlier, we had no record of habitual offenders… Now, we have but we do not have the power to cancel the driving licences of these violators. The power lies with the Transport authorities. All we can do is issue challans,? a senior traffic officer said.
The traffic police is now planning to send a list of the top 50 offenders to the Transport department, so that their licences can be cancelled.
Along with this, police may also write to insurance companies, requesting them to increase the premium paid by the offenders. ?These offenders will be classified as ?risky drivers? and we are planning to write to the insurance companies and the Transport department in this regard. The matter needs to be dealt with a heavy hand,? a police officer said.
