E-challan defaulters to pay more insurance premium for vehicles

Bhubaneswar: Those who have defaulted in paying e- challans for violating traffic rules are likely to cough up more insurance premium for their vehicles. The state government has decided to propose to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDIA) an enhancement of the motor insurance premium of the de- faulters of e-challans.

"We will move the IRDA and ministry of road trans- port and highways to devise a strategy to enhance the premium for defaulters of e-challans issued against the offenders of motor vehicles (MV) rule. We will also propose to create a two-way integration of VAHAN and insurance databases for smooth identification of the defaulters," read minutes of a recent meeting convened by the commerce and transport secretary Usha Padhye on issues involving road safety. The transport department has asked the state transport authority to prepare the enhanced premium slabs.

The state government is also working on a proposal to auto debit the fine arrears from the bank accounts of defaulters. Last month, the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety gave a proposal to the state government to explore the feasibility of collecting penalties from violators directly from their bank accounts if they fail to deposit the fine money within the stipulated time. The apex court panel came up with the auto-debit proposal after observing poor compliance with the penalty rules by the violators. Even though more than 4 lakh challans are normally issued to various traffic rule viola- tors in a year in Odisha, the disposal rate of challans (those who deposited the fine amounts) is about 27%. Challans of violators are sent to courts if they fail to deposit the fine amount on time.

"We are also contemplating introducing a higher motor insurance premium system for habitual offenders of traffic rules," a transport official said.