MARGAO: The government may have scrapped the controversial traffic sentinel scheme in January 2021, but Salcete Special Judicial Magistrate’s (SJM) office has a tough task at hand to dispose the registered cases, which number nearly 2000.
The office housed in the South Goa Sessions Court complex has the above cases pending due to ongoing curfew in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On daily basis the SJM office receives around 200 cases, charge sheeted by the JMFC for which staffers have been designated.
The office is finding it tough to dispose the cases, as it could not summon the traffic violators due to fear of contracting the COVID-19 infection.
Sources informed that there are thousands of traffic violation cases booked under the scrapped Sentinel Scheme in the head office of the Traffic Department in Panjim. Now the department is in the process of sending those to the concerned taluka level special judicial magistrates offices for disposal.
“Nearly 200 to 300 sentinel cases are charge-sheeted in the JMFC on daily basis, and for which three to four employees have been designated “, sources informed.
Speaking to Herald Adv Visitacao Geri Costa, SJM Salcete Taluka and the Public Prosecutor said at the moment the number of pending cases under the Sentinel Scheme is nearly 2000, besides another 2000 cases of traffic violations, are pending in the office due to the pandemic.
“Due to COVID-19 we could not summon a person to the office, besides the staff crunch has caused a lot of hardship in disposing the cases on time. However, in such circumstances, we call minimum number of five persons a day”, he informed.
Adv Costa said his office is receiving the cases after they are being registered in the JMFC. “Per day we receive nearly 200 cases from the JMFC. Presently, the sentinel cases, besides the challan cases by the traffic police are pending in the office for disposal”, he stated.
SJM said the government has scrapped the Sentinel Scheme a few months back, however, the load of cases already booked was pending with the department and these are the cases where violators had avoided paying the fine at the initial stages or not responded to the notices. All those cases are now charge-sheeted.
Accordingly, SJMs of other talukas too facing a tough time to dispose of the sentinel cases, despite the government scrapping the scheme.
This scheme was a brainchild of then DGP Muktesh Chander which was launched to increase compliance with traffic laws and reduce vehicle accidents and fatalities by involving the general public in reporting violations. However, the scheme raked up controversy with the Goa government agreeing last year to review the same after receiving complaints of privacy and misuse.
As per the scheme, the Sentinels had to enrol on an app and then report the traffic violations. This fetched them points which made the sentinel eligible for cash incentives.
