Police vehicle checking; digital facility should be utilized

One of the worst sufferers from the police force personnel in charge of traffic control are those who drive hired vehicles and owners of two-wheelers. There is a widespread arrangement to create new reasons and trap motorists even if there have been no traffic violations. There may be an attempt to register a case and take them to court if there is an attempt to protest or oppose. The top officials in charge of transportation often issue necessary instructions to prevent such harassment from the police. However, it can be seen that things are not going according to the instructions if you look at the vehicle inspections on public roads.

It is an earlier instruction that vehicles should not be stopped and checked by the police at bends and turns. Instructions, including that vehicle inspections should be recorded on video, are also not followed seriously. What is even more disturbing is the police procedures faced by the vehicle owners for not having documents like a driving license and original RC in the vehicle. The police can be convinced by showing a copy of these or digital evidence. However, the officers conducting the inspection are often adamant that the original should be the shown. Vehicle owners often have to face the removal of the key of the vehicle and the payment of a fine for not having the original documents. The approach of many officers is to treat those who take to the streets with vehicles as enemies.

It is in this context that the transport commissioner's latest order becomes relevant. The commissioner's directive reminds that policemen should not mandatorily ask for the original RC and driving license while carrying out vehicle checking. In case of traffic violations, instead of asking for the original document of the vehicle, it is enough to check the vahan sarathi portal for the same and verify the document. A case should be registered as per law only if there are no documents in the portal also. The information should be recorded on the portal itself.

With the spread of the e-governance system, no document has to be kept in physical copy. They can be stored on the phone in digital form itself. This facility is widely availed by the people also. Under the Central Motor Vehicles Act, a digital copy of the RC and driving license is sufficient to convince the police during vehicle checking. When such a simple and reliable facility is available, why insist on showing the documents on paper to the police? There are cruel acts like taking the vehicle to the police station for not having paper documents and harassing the owner during vehicle inspections. Many are yielding as they will be implicated in the case if they oppose the police.
The police force, which is supposed to be the protectors and friends of the society, should be ready to serve the people with maximum propriety. In civilised countries, the police will not treat any great criminal stepping out of the law. They are convinced that criminals also have rights.

The government has installed state-of-the-art surveillance cameras along the road at a cost of crores of rupees to catch traffic violations. They are doing their duty also. There will be lakhs of violations of the law detected by the camera. Traffic violations recorded by the cameras will earn more than Rs 500 crore as fines. If this amount is collected, it will be a huge asset to the exchequer. The drawback is that there is no vigorous effort to do so.