The simputer: In a new role

Bangalore, Aug. 16: Bangalore’s pride ? technology ? is bringing order to its streets.

In a city where more than two million vehicles jostle for road space every day, policemen are turning to simputers to discipline wayward motorists.

Armed with the gadgets that fit into their palms, the cops are booking drivers for traffic violations. The automated paperless spot fining system, through its Internet connectivity, also helps track down frequent offenders.

The system allows access to data on two-million-odd cases in less than a minute. Every breach of traffic regulation appears on the screen, with date and place, making it easy for the police to hand out a ticket on the spot.

In a fortnight since the system was launched last month, about Rs 10 lakh was collected by way of fines. On a single day (August 4), the fines totalled Rs 56,200.

The success has encouraged the city police to plan an addition to the database ?dossiers on criminals.

The gadgets ? simple computers costing about Rs 12,000 each that support multiple applications, from data collection to micro-banking ? are making a difference for the minuscule traffic force of 1,000 in a city of six million people.

Earlier, the police employed a long-drawn process of routing each ticket through the regional transport office (RTO) to the local court. In most cases, the motorists either ignored the notice to cough up the penalty at the court or remained untraced (without effecting a change in residential address at the RTO).

To support traffic management, the local unit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Encore Software, a company marketing simputers, gave 30 gadgets to the city police for a pilot project. It was linked online last month with traffic inspectors of 30 police stations receiving one each.

“They (the city police) have indicated that they want more and are awaiting budgetary allocation. This is the first city to deploy simputers to track down drivers who breach traffic regulations. We are discussing similar applications with the police departments of two other states,” said Vinay Deshpande, chairman and CEO, Encore Software.

Police commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh said: “We plan to get 30 more simputers and hand them down to sub-inspectors as our force has the confidence to use them. We had some instances of drivers with many cases against them pay up on the spot without a protest.

“To overcome the embarrassment on the road, they blame previous owners of the vehicle. We plan to take this project forward and increase the number of applications with online access to criminal past of drivers. That will help us arrest such people (who are wanted in other crimes) on the spot.”

The money coming by way of fines would be used to improve the traffic management system in the city, he added.

M.A. Saleem, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), said the gadgets have helped rein in drivers of three-wheelers, among the worst offenders. “It was such a headache. We are relieved now, but more machines have to be brought into a city like Bangalore to keep track of offenders.”

But the three-wheeler drivers are crying foul. Four have coughed up fines of Rs 500 to Rs 600 for past offences (five or six cases).

One of them, Syed Nizamuddin, 48, paid Rs 600 for six offences. “This is harassment by the police. I do not even remember when I broke the rules, but these policemen asked me to pay the fine or leave my vehicle behind at the police station. Perhaps we must look at alternative jobs...” he said.