Telangana chief electoral officer's car has pending challans worth Rs 18,000

HYDERABAD: Screenshots of the Telangana police's e-challan website, showing a laundry list of pending challans, created quite a flutter on Twitter, on Wednesday. Turned out, the vehicle with 18 pending traffic challans - collectively worth of ₹18,630 - belongs to Telangana's chief electoral officer (CEO). The offences: overspeeding/ dangerous driving (17 instances) and wrong parking (one case)
When TOI contacted CEO, Vikas Raj, about it he flatly denied ownership of the vehicle."Will check if it is from the office," is all he said even as images available with every challan clearly displays the car registration number - TS 09 FB 4800 - and has 'chief electoral officer Telangana' displayed against the owner's name.
As per the e-challan website, the oldest pending challan issued to the vehicle by Rachakonda traffic police, dates back to December 10, 2019. The latest was issued on November 11, 2022. Within the city, violations were recorded at the Children's Park to Lepakshi Upper Tank Bund stretch, Pillar No 84 median gap, Hill Fort and Adarsh Nagar.
As the image surfaced online, citizens raised questions on the lack of police action and asked why the owner was not pulled up. "Are rules meant only for common people? Pending challans on an official car registered in the name of @CEO_Telangana @ECISVEEP @SpokespersonECI @TelanganaDGP @TelanganaCOPs @rajivkumarec," tweeted Sai Teja from the handle @ActivistTeja.
Another user @better_hyd tweeted, "Why are you not issuing an arrest warrant? You make us pay pending challans on road by force and turn a blind eye towards others?"
The traffic police, meanwhile, said that whether it is a vehicle owned by a government department or any individual they follow the same procedure for collecting penalties.
"If a challan is not cleared even after 15 days from the date it was issued, we send a reminder. After that reminders are sent once every fortnight. We also send letters to the address available with RTA initiating owner to clear dues," said a traffic police official, refraining from commenting on this case in particular.