Bhubaneswar: A nine-year-old girl returning from school was allegedly made to wait in the traffic police station for an hour over a traffic violation by her driver on Tuesday as there was no point of sale machine to collect the fine amount of Rs 500.
The child’s mother, Dipanwita Mishra, said, “My daughter was returning from school in my car with the driver. The car was stopped by a traffic cop after the driver took a U-turn at AG Square. A police officer charged the driver for the violation and ordered a constable to sit in the car. My child was sitting alone and she was frightened. The car was forcibly brought to the police station with my child in the back seat. I got a call from the driver and rushed to the police station to pay the fine.”
Dipanwita said that when she arrived at the police station, the cops asked her to pay the fine in cash only. “I had no cash and requested the police to issue an e-challan or accept digital payment. My daughter was feeling restless and crying,” she said.
However, the police station didn’t have access to the e-vahan portal either to issue an e-challan. “After much persuasion, a police officer finally agreed to provide a barcode for online payment of the fine, which I did. To my surprise, after payment, it appeared that the payment went to an individual’s account and not an official account,” she added.
Dipanwita later lodged a complaint with the traffic DCP over the incident.
Tapan Mohanty, DCP (traffic), said a marathon inspection is being conducted at major junctions to check various violations. “Based on the complaint, I have asked the officer concerned to explain what exactly happened. I have strictly instructed not to harass people for minor traffic violations,” he told TOI.