Big change in traffic rules: State agencies now required to send notice to offenders within 15 days

Changing the rules related to traffic violations, the central government has directed state enforcement agencies to send a notice to the offender within 15 days of the crime. 

As per a notification, electronic records have to be stored till the settlement of the invoice. That is, for breaking the traffic rules, now the policemen will not be able to send a challan by just taking a photo. They will need electronic records to make challans.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a notification under the Amended Motor Vehicles Act 1989 for electronic monitoring and enforcement of road safety. In this, it has been directed that electronic devices should be used for issuing challans. "The notice of offence shall be sent within fifteen days of the occurrence of the offence and the electronic record collected by way of electronic monitoring should be stored till the disposal of challan," the ministry tweeted.

Under the new rules, electronic devices will be used prominently to enforce traffic rules. These include speed camera, closed-circuit television camera, speed gun, body wearable camera, dashboard camera, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), weigh-in machine (WIM) and any such other technology specified by the State Government.

According to the notification, the state governments shall ensure that all electronic devices to comply with the traffic rules are installed on high risk and very busy roads of national highways and state highways. Apart from this, these devices will be installed at important intersections and roundabouts of all major cities with a population of at least one million.

A total of 132 cities across the country will have the digital devices installed. These include 17 cities in Uttar Pradesh including Kanpur, Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, seven cities in Madhya Pradesh including Bhopal, Indore, Ujjain, five cities in Rajasthan including Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota, 19 cities in Maharashtra including Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Nagpur in Maharashtra, 3 cities including Ranchi, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, 4 cities including Surat, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, 3 cities including Gaya, Patna in Bihar. Apart from this, the list also includes Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Telangana, West Bengal.

When is recording Mandatory for challan?

1. Overspeeding
2. Parking the car in the wrong place
3. Violation of rules by the driver or pillion
4. Not wearing a helmet on two-wheeler
5. Jumping the Redlight
6. Use of mobile while driving
7. Overloading
8. Not wearing a seat belt
9. Carrying a passenger in a goods vehicle
10. Number plate defective or hidden
11. Loading goods higher in the vehicle