Penalty Point System for traffic violations from today

A Penalty Point System (PPS) for traffic violations will be implemented in the three city police commissionerates from Tuesday .

Under the system, the driving licence of a motorist who accrues over 12 penalty points in a span of 24 months will be suspended for a year. 

Those who drive when the licence has been suspended may be imprisoned up to three months.

To crack down on traffic violators, the state government came up with the idea of PPS.On 24 April this year, it issued a GO introducing the system which will come into force from August 1. PPS is a crucial step taken up by enforcement agencies towards traffic reforms as it moves away from age-old vehicle registration number-based enforcement mechanism to driver-based enforcement mechanism. 

In the existing system, e-challans are generated against the offen der's vehicle registration number and sent to the vehicle owner. But as the PPS specifically targets the violating driver, physical enforcement plays a key role. “Traffic offenders who pose threat to fellow motorists' safety will get penalty



points against their driver's licence. Drunk drivers, chain snatchers, accused involved in fatal road mishaps will get maximum penalty points,“ joint commissioner of police (traffic) V Ravinder said. 

The system also gives leeway for violations made due to lack of facilities. For instance, motorists who are forced to park their vehicle on the streets due to lack of sufficient parking space will not be affected by the PPS. “Those who park vehicles dangerously , on non-designated spots on NHs or the ORR will get penalty points. People who park vehicles on internal streets of city will only have to pay fine,“ DCP (traffic) AV Ranganath said. He added that while “crossing the stop line won't attract penalty points, signal jumping will“. 

“The 24 month period starts from the first point violation. If violators accrue over 12 points in this period, their licence will automatically get suspended for a year. If offenders drive vehicles during this period, chargesheets will be filed against them. They may be imprisoned for three months,“ the joint commissioner of police said.