Number of fines dips, 710 penalised for violations

We were focusing more on the borders on Monday and thus the deployment within the city was less. We have limited staff and we can only work with the resources we have.

NEW DELHI: The first working day of the second round of Delhi government’s odd-even road rationing scheme was marked by massive jams. However, fewer challans were issued on Monday, as compared to the first two days of the scheme that started on April 15.

The number of fines issued, both by the Delhi Traffic Police and the government’s transport department, dipped considerably as compared to Friday and Saturday.

On Monday, 710 challans were A SENIOR TRAFFIC OFFICIAL

issued. Of this, 256 were issued by the traffic police, while 454 were issued by the transport department’s enforcement teams. In comparison, 1,311 challans were issued on Friday and on Saturday, the figure for violations stood at 1,002. On Sunday, the odd-even restriction does not apply.

Traffic police officials said the reason behind the slump in the challan figures was a lack of ample deployment of the force on the ground.

“We were focusing more on the borders on Monday and thus the deployment within the city was less. We have limited staff and we can only work with the resources we have,” a senior traffic official said.

Traffic officials said that on Monday maximum number of challans were issued from the east and south-east district. Thirty-four challans each were issued from both these districts. From the New Delhi district, 33 challans were issued.

This distribution, however, was only from the fined issued by the police.

Delhi’s transport minister Gopal Rai had said on Saturday that to tackle rush and for better implementation of the rule, the government will deploy district magistrates (DMs), subdivisional magistrates (SDMs), additional district magistrates (ADMs) and tehsildars to ensure implementation of the odd-even scheme on Monday.

Among the list of violations was also the drama surrounding the willful defiance of BJP MP, Vijay Goel. To protest against the government’s splurge on advertisements for the odd-even scheme, Goel willfully violated the odd-even restriction by driving his odd-numbered car on the even day.

The second round of the oddeven rule started from April 15. The first round was implemented from January 1 to 15.