Chandigarh, July 18 -- For over two weeks, traffic violators in Chandigarh had a free run as the integrated command and control centre (ICCC) cameras stopped issuing challans from June 25 to July 10 due to a payment issue between the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), the company operating the system.

Sources revealed that the MC owes BEL a whopping Rs.20 crore. The city has over 2,000 cameras, including those monitoring traffic violations, city's entry-exit points, schools, hospitals, parking lots, and community centres, connected to the ICCC. On an average, the ICCC cameras record and issue around 1,800 challans a day for speeding, red-light jumping, and other violations.

The non-functional cha...