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While expressing his inability to understand the reasons why the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act has been facing such criticisms and being protested against, the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that states and people opposing the penalties should understand that the penalties have been fixed as such in order to prevent road accidents and thus save people’s lives.
The minister felt the need to defend the amended provisions of the Act and therefore had to comment on the same after the recent incident of a one-day strike that was called by the Union Front Transport Association (UFTA) in the country’s capital- Delhi. The UFTA is an umbrella association of 41 transport segments including buses, autos, tempos, and cabs. The strike was called as a means to oppose the unreasonably high penalties under the Act.
Stating the above, the minister said that due to the strike many people faced difficulty in reaching their destinations and many schools had to declare a holiday. He further said that in no other nation getting a driving license is as easy as it is in India. Also, the countries where the traffic rules are strict experience less number of road accidents in comparison to India.
He raised a question saying is it not important to penalize a drunken cab driver driving a vehicle and thus risking the lives of the passengers. The number of road accidents constituted 3% of India’s GDP. Moreover, the revenue collected goes to the state government. Even then the states are opposing the law. People are unable to understand a simple thing that if they follow the rules they would not be fined. The rules have been made stringent to deter those who do not respect and follow the law.
He mentioned that the states are free to modify the provisions as they like as the fines mentioned in the Act are the lower and upper limit of penalties that should be imposed. But they should not set the fines at an amount which will hold no value to the traffic rules violators. For example, ten to twenty years back the fines for traffic violations amounted to Rs. 100 and Rs. 150. In today’s time, these amounts do not hold much value and thus people will not take the rules seriously.
The Act has been opposed by people and states since it came into force in July. Many states in public interest have made a huge reduction in penalties and some states have decided not to implement the law at all. However, it should be noted that since the traffic police collecting heavy fines have made headlines, the number of people applying for driving license and pollution under control certificate has increased.
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