Hyderabad: According to a Right to Information (RTI) request, the Telangana traffic police have collected an astounding Rs 366.08 crore in challans or fines for different offences across the state.

The Telangana traffic police collected the money between April 1, 2020, and September 30, 2021, according to information provided by the police department based on an application by one Amjad Khan.

The police department collected Rs 208 crore in fines from April 2020 to March 2021, demonstrating that the state made the most of the COVID-19 lockdown last year.

In fact, many residents have complained about exorbitant fee amounts for traffic offences. Following the start of the COVID-19 outbreak last year, the police vigorously implemented it, seizing vehicles of individuals who were out of their houses for no reason.

According to RTI information obtained from the Telangana traffic police, authorities received Rs 158.33 crore between April 2021 and September 2021. During the same time period, the Cyberabad police jurisdiction collected the most challans, totalling Rs 53.26 crore.

Similarly, between April and September this year, the Hyderabad traffic police collected Rs 35 crore in penalties, placing them second in the country. With a total of Rs 30.36 crore, Jayashankar Bhupalpally was the district with the lowest amount received by the traffic police.

Cyberabad and Hyderabad likely have the highest number of traffic violations, resulting in large quantities of money being collected by the traffic police.

The Telangana police provided a copy of the RTI response.

Because he is fed up with challans, a man sets fire to his bike in front of cops.

The rise in the amount also demonstrates how aggressive the state traffic cops have been in enforcing penalties. A guy set his bike on fire in Adilabad recently, alleging that he was agitated by too many traffic challans. "Last week, I paid a 1000 rupee challan. They're now demanding between 2000 and 3000 rupees. "Where am I going to get the money?" he asked.

The information above was provided under the 2005 Right to Information Act.