India's unpaid e-challans pile up to ₹39,000 crore
India has handed out e-challans worth over ₹61,000 crore since 2015, but about 64%—₹39,000 crore—are still unpaid.
Every day brings in about ₹15 crore in traffic fines, yet only a third actually gets collected.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways says just 38% of the 40 crore-plus challans have been cleared so far.
Why is this happening?
States like Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu lead in issuing challans (UP alone gave out almost 2 crore this year), but most cases are stuck unresolved.
Even with rules meant to speed things up, only about 30% got sorted last year.
Officials admit there are big gaps in how agencies work together and handle these cases.
As one MoRTH official put it: "We need to strengthen our adjudication processes and enhance inter-agency cooperation" to actually hold violators accountable.