After months of bone-chilling cold, where I mostly used to remain huddled under the blanket in my home, I decided to celebrate the advent of spring with a solo scooty ride. On 20th February 2023, I unveiled my two-wheeler only to find piles of dust accumulated on its structure. Considering the fact that the scooty had been left unattended for more than three months, the thick layer of grime and dust did not surprise me. I took it as far as the local service station where it was washed and cleaned. Putting my headgear on, I rode the scooty and paid a surprise visit to my friend who lives at a distance of 4 kilometers from my house. In the evening, I returned and parked the scooty at the place where it used to be during winter. My only engagement during winter was to drop my wife at her place of work in Budgam and ferry her back for which I used my four-wheeler.
On 25th of February I had to attend a social function arranged by my brother-in-law at his house in Kunzer. Mindful of the fact that the said place was about 30 Kilometers away from my home in Bemina, I decided to use my car. At about 2.00 p.m in the afternoon, I set out for my Journey. I picked up my better half from my in-laws’ house in Magam where she had gone about a week ago as part of her inalienable right to stay at her matrimonial home for some days. Overwhelmed by an uncanny hysteria caused by the serenity of the atmosphere I drove my way towards my destination. Humming a Bollywood tune from the yesteryears Bollywood flick Andaz, I was feeling quite active and agile. The vernal spring breeze coming from the half lowered window pane was kissing my cheeks and giving me an exotic feeling. Fascinated by the natural exuberance and the pleasant weather, I was trying to soak the moment.
The bright sunny ambience coupled with the breathtaking blue sky was giving me some magical vibes. The snow clad mountains and the puffy white clouds only added to the charm of the occasion. In the meantime I reached my destination. The hosts warmly welcomed us and we made ourselves comfortable. As I was about to have the first sip of the steaming tea, my mobile phone beeped signaling the receipt of a text message. I presumed it to be one of those irritatingly innocuous messages sent by banks offering a pre-approved credit card. I was also expecting some arrears from my employer so I instantly picked up my mobile to check the contents of the incoming message. A mere look at the message gave me jitters. The feeling of ecstasy vanished and a somber and deeply melancholic feeling set in. An expression of gloom on my face alerted the people around me and they sensed some trouble.
My brother-in law enquired about the matter but I tried to evade the topic. From my schooldays I knew that I was a bad actor and this time also I could not hide my emotions with cosmetic and false feelings. I gave in to the repeated requests of my hosts and disclosed the entire matter to them. Actually the contents of the message were disturbing and equally baffling for me. I was in receipt of a traffic challan amounting to rupees 1000 for driving my scooty without a helmet. The date of challan was mentioned as 25th February 2023 at around 3.00 p.m irrespective of the fact that I had not used my scooty on the said date or even the day before. Upon tapping on the photo attached as the evidence for the alleged offence it dawned upon me that the rider had a woman as the pillion. The only time I had a woman as the pillion after 20th February was when I picked my wife from Railway approach road Budgam to Railway Station Budgam. The place of incident was shown as “D77” which upon some meticulous researching turned out to be Polo view Srinagar. I had not visited the said place this year by any means let alone by a scooty. I zoomed in the photo and realized that the active scooty shown in the picture bore a striking resemblance with my scooty, the only difference being that the units digit of the four digit registration number differed. The unit’s digit in the registration number of the erring two-wheeler was 8 whereas the unit’s digit in the registration number of my two-wheeler is 9.
To reassure myself that I had not been caught on the wrong foot and the challan was merely an aberration by the traffic department, I turned to my wife and showed her the evidence sent by the traffic department and this is where the real problem started. Contrary to my expectations, my wife threw a volley of questions at me. Questions like who is she? What have you been doing behind my back? Who the other woman is? Etc shook the existence out of me. I anyhow maintained my composure and tried to reason with her but the situation had already snowballed into a deeper crisis. Enraged, I spitefully picked up my mobile and posted a tweet on twitter mentioning my problem therein. I attached the evidence and tagged the concerned quarters but that did not evoke a response from them. I even shot a message to traffic police department on the watsapp number given for that purpose but the message was brushed aside as something irrelevant. Although I was quite aware of the fact that I can submit my online claim/complaint on eparivahan or in the worst scenario contest my case via a virtual court whereby I will be given a date for physical hearing, I decided against doing the same in order to get a feel of how a common man with little or no digital literacy counters the problem.
On 28th February (Tuesday), I refueled my car from the local fuel pump and headed straight to the office of SSP Traffic to resolve the issue. The sentry at the gate stopped me and asked me about the reason of visiting the office. I placed my case before him with the hope that he will empathize with me and guide me to the relevant quarters. Quite surprisingly, the sentry turned me away. In a baritone voice he told me to come on Thursday and submit an application in the office. I asserted that I am being made to suffer for an offence which I have not committed and that my expenses on fuel and allied things will touch around rupees 200 for the day and same will happen on Thursday bringing the total expenses to around 400 or even more. This is in addition to the commitments that I will have to postpone on the said day. He nodded in approval but stayed rigid prompting me to return.
Back home, I told my predicament to my friend who told me that the challan amount will be brought down to Rs 500 and that I should pay the amount to avoid any further inconvenience. I declined to act on his suggestion and told him that How in the world can I own the mistake of some other offender? This is against my principles and grossly against the principles of social justice. He told me that every now and then he sees people on social media complaining about the receipt of wrong traffic e-challans. There have been instances where traffic challans have been sent to people who do not possess a vehicle. At this point some will argue that there is a mechanism of raising a complaint on eparivahan platform or contest the wrongly placed challan in a virtual court. But the million dollar question is that, are all the vehicle owners digitally equipped to do the same. I have seen long queues of people at Banks waiting for their turn to deposit their electricity dues despite the fact that Jammu Kashmir Bank has provided the facility through a digital platform (Mpay) and it will not be out of place to mention that most of the households have at least one individual using Mpay.
Traffic Police Department should evolve a comprehensive mechanism to reduce the error factor in e-challans. Traffic cops manning busy junctions should be provided high resolution cameras/ phones with high resolution cameras rather than their own android phones which more often than not capture blurred and faded pictures of violators on the move. There should be a proper mechanism to transfer the ownership of vehicles. As far as possible, it should be ensured that vehicles plying on roads have their own mobile numbers linked in their registration certificates. A dedicated appellate authority should look into the grievances of common people.
MORTH has directed all the states to accept vehicle documents through Digilocker and mparivahan and traffic police personnel should honour the guidelines. The current SSP traffic is doing a wonderful job of curbing violations resulting from wrong motor vehicle use but he must also ensure that common people who are there to eke out a living for their families should not suffer owing to wrongly placed e-challans. On our part we should pledge to follow the traffic rules in letter and spirit as the rules have been framed considering our safety.
For me personally, the question still remains: Who the other woman is?
(The author is a freelance writer and can be mailed at [email protected])
