Traffic cops to capture violations on phone, send challans home

Panaji: Public and tourists will not be stopped for any traffic violation on roads, but that does not mean that the lawbreakers will go scot-free. Goa police personnel will capture violations on their phones, and accordingly a challan will be directly delivered to the residential address of the vehicle owners.
From now on, only police inspectors will be empowered to issue challans for traffic violations during the daytime. During the night hours, along with PIs, police sub-inspectors (PSIs) have been entrusted with the task.
Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that he received several complaints regarding harassment from police personnel, especially against those deployed for traffic management and from lower ranks.
“I announced today that during the daytime, only PIs with body cameras will issue challans, and at night, only PSIs and PIs along with body cameras will be empowered to do so. Besides PIs and PSIs, no other police personnel can issue challans,” he said.
Sawant stated that challans will also be issued based on dash cams, CCTV cameras, photos by police personnel and AI systems. “Direct challans will be sent home. Henceforth, people should not think that they will not receive a challan,” Sawant said.
“In case any police personnel below the rank of PSIs and PI stops the public to issue a challan, then the public should click photos and send them to the police department. We will suspend the erring personnel,” the chief minister said.
He emphasised that police cannot ask for money from anyone to issue a challan. “In case there is a major traffic violation, then they can stop the vehicle, click its photo and send the challan to their residence,” Sawant said.
The chief minister said that only the taluka nodal officer of the RTO with a body camera can issue a challan and nobody else.
He further said that police posted at the beach cannot issue a challan. “If they find anyone violating, then they should report the incident to the higher ups, and the challan would be issued at the police station,” Sawant said.
“Public and tourists should not unnecessarily click photos of police personnel to make allegations against them,” Sawant said, and added that a notification will be issued, but implementation has started.