Thiruvananthapuram: A fully automated AI-enabled traffic enforcement system supposedly cannot distinguish between a minister and a commoner.
However, even before the system could start issuing penalty notices, Kerala State Human Rights Commission has registered a case against the AI-enabled 'Safe Kerala' road surveillance project on a complaint that it divides people of the state into two sets of classes: the rulers and the ruled.
The case has been registered by the State Human Rights Commission based on a complaint filed before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
The complaint, filed by a Palakkad-based human rights activist Boban Mattumantha, said that Kerala Government had decided to exempt certain highly placed individuals, including ministers, from penalties that would result from road safety violations. "This is deeply unjust and highly discriminatory as every citizen is equal under the law," Mattumantha said in his complaint to the NHRC.
He said the intervention of the NHRC was essential to stymie the Kerala Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) from letting "VIPs violate road safety rules at will". Transport Minister Antony Raju had said that "emergency vehicles" would be insulated from penalties. By emergency vehicles, the minister said he meant vehicles with a red beacon.
Therefore, in addition to ambulances and police jeeps on emergency missions, the official vehicles of ministers and top bureaucrats too would be spared the penalties for overspeeding and other driving violations.
Mattumantha said in his complaint that accidents have been caused by the official vehicles of ministers and their pilot vehicles. "So the exemption of the vehicles of ministers and top bureaucrat weakens the MVD's claim that the Safe Kerala project was an attempt to ensure the safety of the people and strengthens the suspicion that the project was merely an attempt to fleece the public and fatten the coffers of the government," the complaint said.
It is not Mattumantha's case that the surveillance cameras would not pick up violations by VIP vehicles. He charges that penalty notices/challans would not be sent to them from the control office.
The vehicle owner will receive an SMS alert once the AI camera detects a traffic violation. The minimum fine for illegal parking is Rs 250. Driving without a helmet and a seatbelt would invite a fine of Rs 500. Drivers who are caught on camera for overspeeding and mobile phone use will be charged Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000, respectively.
According to the complainant, if any group should be given an exemption, it has to be health professionals. "A minister has no greater emergency than a doctor," Mattumantha said.
He said Kerala should also behave like a democratic country where everyone is equal. He cited the example of Britain where its Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was charged 100 pounds for driving without a seat belt this January. He said the former Brazilian Prime Minister Jair Bolsonaro, when he was Prime Minister of Brazil, was fined for travelling without a mask during COVID in a two-wheeler. Former Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg was also penalised for violating COVID protocols.
"At a time when various nations are giving out the message that everyone is equal under the law, Kerala is trying to divide people into separate classes," Mattumantha said.
