The city and the state police, along with the transport department, have recently launched a unified e-challan portal to facilitate the collection of fines from vehicles violating traffic rules.

Developed jointly by the departments of transport and information technology and electronics, the portal has been named Sanjog.

The government has decided that unless the dues are cleared, the mandatory fitness and pollution certificates will not be issued, and any transaction involving a driving licence will not be allowed.

A recent notification issued by the state transport secretary, Saumitra Mohan, says Kolkata Police and their state counterparts, along with the transport department, will have to start using the portal from June to channelise revenue collection to respective departments.

Senior police officers said the owner of an offending vehicle will receive a text message containing details of the violation of any of the provisions under the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 immediately after being booked by the police or the transport department.

This message will have details of the e-challan and a link to the Sanjog portal.

“The owner of an offending vehicle will follow the link to visit the Sanjog portal sent through the text message and pay the fine. The amount shall be credited directly to the state exchequer in the relevant head of account,” a senior Kolkata Police officer said.

Senior transport department officers involved in creating the portal said pending challans for all the departments, including Kolkata Traffic Police, West Bengal Traffic Police and the transport department, will be available on Sanjog.

One can pay online to clear the pending challans of all three departments with a single click at sanjog.wb.gov.in, they said.

“A vehicle owner will get to know about all the traffic cases against him or her from one platform. This will help the person clear the dues with one click,” said an officer of the transport department.

“That, in turn, would help the state government realise the pending revenue from offending vehicles. Earlier, several owners were not even aware of the number of
cases pending against their vehicles.”

With the three departments issuing tickets for traffic violations separately,
senior officers of the transport department said several crores of rupees have remained unclaimed as dues from traffic fines.

With Sanjog, each department will get to learn about their revenue incomes from the pending challans.

While the notification spells out that pollution and fitness tests won’t be cleared unless owners of offending vehicles clear their pending dues, it also states that a registering authority in Calcutta and other districts may process a citizen’s request for a service provided he or she ensures that the pending amount is cleared within six months.

“Someone who wants to pay road tax or register a new vehicle with pending dues will be asked to clear the amount within six months,” the transport department officer said.

A section of private transport operators has asked the state government to reconsider the decision of not issuing the mandatory pollution and fitness certificates unless the pending challans are cleared.

“The fitness and pollution certificates and permits should not be held back because of the pending challans. That would be unfair to private bus and minibus operators,” they said in an appeal to the state government.