Challans hit as Noida cops’ SIM cards not recharged for a month

NOIDA: With prepaid SIM cards of as many as 154 mobile phones of Noida police not recharged for over a month now, traffic cops are facing difficulty in issuing e-challans to violators. This was the first problem shared by traffic police officers to the new DCP, who took the first meeting of the department officers on Monday.
Traffic police officers complained that since the past one month, they are unable to issue e-challans using their official numbers due to lack of top-up in their SIM cards.Letters have been sent to the UP Police headquarters through the office of then SSP in December last year apprising the senior officers of the problem but to no avail. Sources present in the meeting said junior officers complained to the DCP that despite giving a revenue of Rs.14.76 crore to the state government through generation and payment of challans in 2019, they are forced to issuing challans using their personal mobiles.
“The balance in the SIM cards expired sometime in December and it has been almost a month now. A letter was sent to the headquarters via the SSP office in December itself. However, the payment is yet to be made,” a senior traffic police officer told TOI. Another officer present in the meeting said they are currently forced to issue challans using the hotspot facility on their personal mobiles, attaching their official handsets with their own personal mobiles. When contacted, DCP (traffic) Rajesh S said that he has inquired into the issue and funds have been sought from the government.