Traffic violators reluctant to pay spot fine with cards

More than 20 days after 100 PoS machines were distributed to the traffic cops across the city to collect fine, a little more than Rs 1 lakh has been collected through this digital mode so far. “Most of the motorists fear that it will become a record if they pay fine using their debit or credit card and prefer paying fine by cash. But, I hope people will eventually accept PoS machines,” said Prem Anand Sinha, Joint Commissioner (Traffic-North).

According to him, more motorists have begun to use PoS machines in the north and south zones compared to the east and west. “In some places, people are welcoming the change as it makes the whole system transparent.

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In other places, it is slowly catching up,” the official said. “Apart from initial glitches, such as poor connectivity, I have not received any major complaints from the cops on handling of PoS machines,” he added.

Tiruvengadam, a traffic inspector attached to Pondy Bazaar, said that he collects fine using PoS machines at least in 15 cases a day. “Offences such as not wearing helmet, jumping traffic signal, over-speeding, drunken driving, overloading and unsafe ferrying of people in commercial vehicles are the ones that attract spot fine. While some students are surprised about the new facility and are willing to pay using debit cards, commercial vehicle drivers and call taxi drivers don’t carry cards with them,” he said.

Interestingly, there have been instances when transaction got cancelled because there was not sufficient fund in the violators’ account and in other cases motorists didn’t want to waste a withdrawal count for a sum as meager as Rs 100. “Sometimes, due to poor connectivity, the transaction might get cancelled, but motorists argue that money has been deducted from their account,” he added.

A car owner, who was caught for over-speeding in T Nagar, was taken aback by cops using PoS machines to collect fine.

However, he was reluctant to pay the fine using his credit card, as he wasn’t sure whether he would be charged extra for it. After much persuasion, he finally paid the fine on a cashless mode.

Prem Anand Sinha said that traffic cops would be instructed to be strict with violators and triple the number of cases being booked. “We have been discussing the way to procuring additional PoS machines. Traffic cops have been asked to take motorists not wearing helmets to the patrol vehicle or to the nearest station to show a compilation of live accidents recorded to make them understand the importance of wearing helmets,” he said.