HP Police tighten noose, ink pact for e-challaning

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 17

The Himachal Pradesh Police today signed a memorandum of understanding with the State Bank of India for e-challaning. The memorandum was signed by ADGP Shyam Bhagat Negi and deputy general manager of the bank Pawan Kumar.

It states that the MDR duty (fee charged from a merchant by a bank for accepting payments from customers through credit and debit cards in their establishments) has been waived.

The bank will provide 1,000 machines in a phased manner and also cover all expenses related to the expenditure of the machines to promote physical payment. The payment will be deposited immediately in the government treasury.

Earlier, the state government had procured 750 e-challan machines, equipped with the facility of mobile phones with 4G connectivity, SIM cards, printers and SMSes for challan receipt. A gateway to pay fine and e-challan application is being procured.

e-challaning facilitates creation of a database of traffic violators, which will be recorded in the central data bank, and the quantum of penalty will be scaled up for repeating the offence. Repeated violations in cases like drunk driving will not only attract fine, but also cancellation of the driving licence on the recommendation of the police. As per the statics available with the Police Department, 90 percent of the people pay fine in cash and this facility will continue but with e-challan machines, cashless transactions will also be encouraged. “SMSes will have a link, which will enable a defaulter to see all details regarding the location of the challan, type of violation and the amount of fine,” a spokesperson of the department said.