A Twitter user has alleged that the traffic police in Lahore, Punjab have collected Rs 1.5 billion in fines for traffic violations in 2022.
The claim is true.
Claim
“According to a report, in just one month at the beginning of the new year, Lahore traffic police issued 479,000 challans and collected 200 million rupees from citizens,” the user wrote on Twitter on February 7, “while last year 2022, Rs1.5 billion were Collected.
ایک رپورٹ کے مطابق نئے سال کے آغاز میں صرف 1 ماہ کے دوران لاہور کی ٹریفک پولیس نے 4 لاکھ 79 ہزار چلان کاٹ کر شہریوں سے 20 کروڑ روپے وصول کیے تھے۔جبکہ پچھلے سال 2022 میں ایک سال کے دوران ڈیڑھ ارب روپے صرف لاہور میں ٹریفک چلان کی مد میں وصول کیے گئے تھے
— Ali Ramay (@AliRamay557) February 7, 2023
To date, the tweet has been viewed more than 13,000 times on the microblogging website.
Reality
The statement is absolutely correct.
The traffic police in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, collected one and a half billion rupees in fines for traffic violations last year. While this year in January alone, he earned 200 million rupees.
Lahore’s Chief Traffic Officer, Mustansar Feroze, told JEE News over the phone that the report was true.
According to the document shared by Feroze, the Traffic Police Lahore issued 37,416,34 tickets in 2022, which collected one and a half billion rupees.
Most of the tickets were issued to citizens for riding motorcycles without helmets.
Meanwhile, a total of 610,320 fines were issued from January 1 to February 8, again mostly for not wearing a safety helmet. A total of 200 million rupees were collected by the traffic police from these fines.
The Chief Traffic Officer further said that there are 3373 traffic wardens in Lahore at present.
“The police [last year] decided on their own that a traffic police officer should issue at least 15-20 tickets per day,” he said, adding, “The more tickets issued, the more effective the officer is.” Will.”
However, Feroze explained that traffic wardens do not get any cut or commission from fines.
Traffic Police Public Relations Officer Rana Arif also confirmed to JEE News that all the money collected from traffic fines does not go into the pockets of the policemen but into the treasury of the Punjab government.
In November, the Lahore High Court ordered traffic police to increase fines to ensure better road safety. Now drivers in Lahore are charged Rs 2000 for driving without a license and violating the one-way rule.
