Punjab excise dept gives 10-day deadline

The department had a plan to replace the old number plates with the new format and stopped issuing the old ones

LAHORE: The Punjab Excise and Taxation Department has given a deadline of 10 days to the citizens who were driving their vehicles on open letter.

The department warned of cancellation of registration after due date. The step was being taken to ensure complete implementation of the e-challanning project. An e-ticket is sent to the first owner of the vehicle, who refuses to pay because he sold the vehicle to a new owner. In this way, a large number of challans started piling up pending. According to an estimate, there were at least 800,000 vehicles running on open letter. The department has prepared a list of 300,000 of such cars and 500,000 motorcycles. One tenth of the vehicles were on the lease.

Besides these hurdles, e-challaning project was facing other challenges as well. The E&T department had decided to issue a universal automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) system for e-challaning. The department had a plan to replace the old number plates with the new format and design and stopped issuing the old ones. However, the department was facing the problems in meeting the demand. The region C of the department was unable to issue even a single number plate in the last 10 days. The project was also facing the problem of fake number plates. A few cases have been reported in the city in which a challan was sent to the address of the wrong person.

A few weeks ago, a resident of Mughalpura had come forth claiming that the mistake committed by the e-challanning system had created differences between him and his wife. He said an e-challan was delivered to his home in which a woman was shown sitting on a motorcycle. His wife got annoyed as he had not travelled on the motorcycle with her on the prescribed date and day. He said he too did not ride the vehicle on the road on the day with any other woman. In its response on the incident, the PSCA said the person who had committed violation was using a fake number plate.

The Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) had formally launched the e-challaning system in September this year. The PSCA Chief Operating Officer Akbar Nasir Khan had made the announcement during a press conference at Qurban Lines. The conference focused on the PSCA and City Traffic Police Lahore’s (CTPL) initiative, while also discussing the scope of the project, the purpose behind it as well as clarification of a few misconceptions that had cropped up.

Khan had said the initiative was in total compliance with the Motor Vehicle Ordinance and its predefined penalty grid.

“Around 90 locations across Lahore are under the surveillance. The cameras will record traffic violations automatically after which the footage will be scrutinised manually by police communication officers at the Electronic Ticketing Centre (ETC),” he had explained.

After the challans had been validated, they would be vetted once again and double checked by CTPL officials who would verify the integrity of the recorded footage. Only then the ETC would dispatch an e-challan via post along with four pictures outlining the phases of the violation, he elaborated.

Last year in June, Punjab DIG Traffic Farooq Mazhar had claimed that the system would be at par with the international standards like any other developed country. An online record of violations of a driver would also be maintained by the department. An electronic device would calculate these points and issue violation tickets. Every violation carried certain point penalties and authorities could cancel a driving licence for a period of three months to two years.

Mazhar explained that in case a violator does not pay the fine, he or she would not be able to get their documents updated. Every violation ticket would carry the record of previous violation points which would be updated online. A violator, on repeated cancellations of their licence, would be required to appear for a driving test and pay the fee. At this stage, classes for driving training and traffic rules awareness would be mandatory.

“The department sent a proposed draft to the law department for amendments to traffic police rules. The proposed draft will be presented before next the cabinet committee meeting for further proceedings,” he said.

Under the new system, if a death occurs during a road accident because of a traffic violation and police find the violator guilty during the investigation, his or her licence would remain suspended for two years even if the violator reached an agreement of reconciliation with the aggrieved family.