Cops prefer court challans over compound fines
Gul Owais
Srinagar, Sep 1: At a time when the assembly of people is strictly restricted to prevent the COVID-19 from spreading, the traffic policemen are allegedly issuing court challans to violators, which leads to overcrowding in courts, thus increasing the risk among people to get infected.
The commuters who were challaned at different places in Srinagar on Tuesday told ‘Precious Kashmir’ that the policemen seem obsessed with court challans. “I urged the traffic cops to impose the fine on spot but they didn’t listen to my pleas and imposed a court challan,” said a lady doctor, who was fined near LD hospital here.
She said that she is posted at Vessu Qazigund in south Kashmir and now she will have to travel to Srinagar again on September 15, 2020 to get her RC released. “They didn’t show any respect either towards me being lady or being a doctor. They just handed over the challan to me and showed no sympathy,” she added.
She said that near Lal Ded hospital in Srinagar; a number of commuters like her were seen stopped. “After being stopped, many among us pleaded before the cops to provide us with the compound challan only. But, the cops present there issued a court challan to almost all of them,” she added.
A doctor who was coming from SKIMS Soura after performing COVID duty was also challaned. He said that he was ready to pay the fine in violation of traffic norms, but the cops have issued him a court challan, thus adding to his miseries.
The commuters stated that amid the ongoing pandemic, it is not possible for them to visit the courts to avoid the gatherings. “Already, the rush of people remains high in the courts and by issuing the court challans, the traffic police department is increasing the rush of litigants, thus increasing the chance of getting infected with the virus,” they said.
Another commuter, who was also challaned a few days back, said that he couldn’t visit the court to pay the amount as fine and release the Registration Certificate (RC) of his vehicle. “I am very sacred of the ongoing pandemic. It has claimed over 700 lives so far. It is better to stay inside rather than visiting any place where the crowd remains high,” he said, adding that he used to go anywhere in his car only but since the court challan was issued to him, he has not come out of his home to stay healthy.
“It would have been better in case the traffic cops who are performing their duties would have issued compound challan to all the violators during the pandemic to ensure that the people will not suffer and the flow of litigants would not increase at the courts,” he said.
The commuters appealed to the concerned department to consider issuing compound challans only so that the crowd at the courts is avoided.
Meanwhile, IGP Traffic, T Namgyal said that it depends upon the people how they will pay the fine. “We have both the options available and it depends upon the violators to choose one among them,” he said.
Amid pandemic traffic police sending more people to courts
