PANAJI
After nearly 10 days of silence over allegations surrounding the collection of traffic fines amounting to more than Rs 3 crore, the Traffic Police on Tuesday issued an official clarification, asserting that its enforcement drive did not breach any legal provision and that the certification requirement under Rule 167-A of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, has no application to the manner in which challans are presently issued in Goa.
In a press release issued from its headquarters at Altinho, Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Prabodh Shirwaikar maintained that all challans in the State are issued manually by enforcement personnel after due verification of data captured through devices such as alcometers, speed radar guns and body-worn cameras, and not through any automated challan generation system.
“All challans are issued manually by enforcement personnel after due verification of data obtained from devices such as alcometers and speed radar guns. Therefore, the provisions relating to automated enforcement under Rule 167-A are not applicable in the present context,” it said.
The clarification comes in response to The Goan’s reports dated April 12, April 14 and the editorial on April 15, that had cast a shadow over the legality of the fines collected.
The traffic police further clarified that the provisions governing deployment of such systems in “million-plus” cities are also inapplicable to Goa, as no city in the State falls within that category. It further stressed that all penalties are collected strictly through digital modes, including UPI, card payments and online transactions, effectively ruling out any cash collection.
However, even as the department sought to distance itself from the central framework applicable to 132 cities with populations exceeding 10 lakh, its own records indicate that certification for enforcement devices was obtained only on February 20, 2026 -- after RTI queries were filed by The Goan.
By then, the bulk of the enforcement drive had already been carried out, during which fines amounting to approximately Rs 3.24 crore had been collected since 2024.
The department’s latest clarification however, remains silent on one of the central issues thrown up by its own disclosures -- the use of mobile phones by traffic personnel to document violations and generate challans.
Official records show that in 2025 alone, Traffic Cells in North Goa issued 22,042 motor vehicle challans based on photographs captured by police personnel, collecting Rs 1,08,52,500 in compounding fees for violations recorded using mobile phones. In South Goa, a further 30,249 challans were issued, with compounding fees amounting to Rs 97,07,100. Separate violations were also recorded by the headquarters.
