PESHAWAR: The Traffic Police Department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has set a monthly target of Rs120 million for collection as fine from traffic violators.
This ambitious goal aims to collect Rs500 million during the next four months after the provincial government directed the department to generate more revenue. In response, the department has explored various means of fund generation and presented their recommendations, which were subsequently approved by the provincial government, thus setting the target of collecting Rs120 million on a monthly basis as fine from traffic violators.
Typically, the traffic police department manages to collect an annual sum of 500 to 600 million rupees from traffic violations. However, this time, they have been directed to achieve this amount within four months, which will directly impact the general public.
The KP traffic police face a challenging task ahead as they strive to meet this revenue target. However, concerns have been raised about the potential impact on law-abiding citizens and the need to ensure fairness in implementing traffic regulations.
To achieve this target, the traffic police will have to intensify their efforts to identify and penalize offenders. Offenses such as overspeeding, failure to wear a helmet, use of tinted windows in vehicles, not wearing seat belts, illegal parking, and other violations will be strictly enforced, with offenders facing triple the fines in the upcoming four months.
Interestingly, some transporters have criticized the traffic police, accusing them of unfairly penalizing citizens for personal gain. Transporters claimed that despite not being the primary target, the traffic police manage to collect millions of rupees in fines from public transport vehicles every month. Despite this substantial revenue, the traffic police department seems to be failing to show any significant improvement in its operations. The transporters said that when the new strategy takes effect, they eagerly await to see whether the traffic police can strike a balance between meeting their financial targets and maintaining a fair and just approach towards traffic regulation enforcement.
Transporters argued that even though the provincial government has set specific targets, the traffic police continue to impose “baseless” fines, causing inconvenience to the public. They alleged that traffic officers are imposing “unjust” fines to meet their daily quotas of fine collection. The traffic police department has yet to comment on these allegations and concerns.
