Now pay traffic penalty in Delhi through the postman

New Delhi, Aug 1 (UNI) For the violaters of traffic rules in the capital, paying penalty has just become easier--one can do it through the neighbourhood postman! In an all out effort to curb traffic violations and to tighten the process of issuing 'challans' recovering fines, the Delhi Traffic Police has entered an agreement with the Postal Department that empowers the postman to collect compounding amounts.

''This will ensure speedy delivery of challans and recovery of the compounding amount,'' Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Qamar Ahmed at a press conference.

Under the scheme, the postmen will carry money order forms, which can used for paying the amount. But, one will have to pay Rs five extra as service charge for bringing the facility to the door step.

He said the department will also be using the 'Speed Post' to deliver a definite number of notices. Also, the offenders can themselves deposit the amount at various post office counters across the city.

''With a network of 427 post offices and 3000-plus postmen, the India Post can chip in its bit to make the capital a safe place,'' Post Master General Vinod Kumar, who was also present.

Mr Ahmad said, ''The postmen will be encauraged to collect as many penalty amounts as possible. A part of the compounding amount can be passed on to them as incentive.'' He also said the Traffic Police department has installed a mega machine that will generate 60 notices per minute in a specified format. ''The violation details are fed online to the Traffic server and the notices will come out in the shape of a ready-to-post envelope,'' he added.

Apart from this, cash depository machines are being installed so as to enable the offenders to pay fines by cheques or drafts.

Already four of them are operational at Sadiq Nagar, Keshav Puram, Shakarpur and Punjabi Bagh. They can also pay up their amounts by cash at the Traffic Inspectors' offices in Delhi's 38 circles and by cheque or DD at the office of DCP (Traffic), Teen Murti lines , he said.

The official also said it will also easy to know the notices pending against a vehicle through SMS to 9811452220. ''Type letter n followed by space and the registration number of the vehicle and the details will be available,'' he said.

He agreed that pedestrians were also responsible for a number of accidents taking place, but said it would be ''very cumbersome'' to challan them.

UNI