Now traffic violators in Mangaluru do not have to go to court to pay penalty to get their vehicle released. In a people-friendly step, the Mangaluru City Police along with the Department of Posts, Mangaluru Division, have introduced the facility of payment of traffic violation penalty under the Mangaluru Police Commissionerate jurisdiction at the post offices, thereby easing the whole process for the public. The fines can be paid either in cash or through QR code scanning at post offices.

Indian Masterminds interacted with ACP Traffic, Mangaluru, Geetha D. Kulkarni, to know more about this step.

PAYMENT IN POST OFFICES

Giving details, Ms. Kulkarni said, “Police commissioner N Shashikumar, IPS, signed an agreement with Shriharsha N, IPOs, Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Mangaluru Postal Division for introducing the payment facility. The revolutionary change was first introduced in Chennai, and now Mangaluru is following suit.”

Earlier, the facility of paying fines for traffic violations under the jurisdiction of Mangaluru Police Commissionerate was available only online and at four local traffic police stations, namely, Traffic East Police Station, Kadri, Traffic West Police Station, Pandeshwar, Traffic North Police Station, Surathkal and Traffic South Police Station, Nagori and four Mangaluru One Centres – Mallikatte, Lalbagh, Bavutagudde and Surathkal. But, now, this facility is being extended to all head and sub-post offices of Karnataka.

“This service will now be available across 2500+ post offices of Karnataka,” Ms. Kulkarni said.

The information of the traffic rules violating vehicles is available instantly through the automation centre which was started to control those who don’t wear helmets, seat belt, triple ride and those who drive with defective number plates. Due to this, notices are being issued to the owners of those vehicles who have violated the traffic rules.

Therefore, fine has to be paid by the owner of such vehicles within seven days of the notice. If a vehicle registered in any other city of Karnataka comes to Mangaluru and violates the traffic rules, a notice will be sent to them. Since it is difficult for them to come to Mangaluru and pay the fine, such vehicle owners can pay the fine at the nearest post office.

The fine can be paid by cash or through QR Code scanning at 2500+ departmental post offices in Karnataka including 126 post offices of Dakshina Kannada and 62 post offices of Udupi District.

Fines for traffic violations received under the E-Payment service at post offices will be instantly transmitted online to the Mangaluru City Police server through API integration.

HOW TO PAY THE FINE

To pay the traffic violation fee at the post offices, the customer has to bring the traffic violation fine challan. However, if it is not brought, the customer can tell the registration number of the vehicle that violated the traffic rules and pay the penalty fee. If more than one notice has been issued to the vehicle owner for violating the traffic rules and if the customer does not bring his old notice or has lost it, the customer can obtain the details of such notices from post offices by giving the vehicle registration number and pay the penalty fee for all or some of the outstanding notices.

Apart from this, customers can check at the post offices whether there is any penalty charge on the vehicles at the time of sale, which, then, can be paid immediately.