Rajya Sabha clears Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill; hefty penalties for violators  

Road accidents still claim over 100,000 lives in India each year.

 Delhi: The long-pending Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill has been cleared by the Rajya Sabha, on Wednesday. The bill, which was introduced by Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari, is primarily focused on reducing deaths by road accidents. It has revised penalties for traffic violation and categorization of increasingly common traffic offences on the roads.

The bill is intended to improve road safety and streamline processed of licensing and road permit. Earlier, the bill has been passed by the Lok Sabha, however, the bill will again return to Lok Sabha to clear two amendments introduced in it by the government.

The government has increased penalty five to 10 times in different cases. Common offences such as wrong-side driving, using mobile phones while driving and skipping the signal red light have been included in the “dangerous driving” category. The penalty for these offences has been increased from ₹1,000 to up to ₹5000 with a risk of facing jail term for six months.

The bill has also introduced hike in the penalty for drunk driving. Vehicle owner or guardian of juvenile responsible for traffic offences will be charged hefty penalty with the possibility of a jail term. The juvenile will also not be allowed to get normal driving licence till the age of 25. 

Similarly, penalties for automobile manufacturers for violation in vehicle standards can go up to ₹100 crore and a year in jail. Private cab companies such as Uber and Ola will need to procure licence from state governments and penalty for failure to adhere conditions can go up to from ₹25000 to ₹1 lakh.

The bill has introduced provision for charging double penalty for law enforcing personnel for the violation of the traffic rules. A senior ministry official has assured that enough time will be provided for people to be aware of the law. The law will not come in to force until the rules are framed and notified, he said.

The opposition criticized the bill for provisions regarding increased privatisation of the transport sector and infringement of rights of states. BK Hariprasad, Congress MP from Karnataka while objecting the bill said that out of 92 clauses in the bill, only five clauses are related to road safety.

DMK MP M Shanmugam said making amendments in the act is not the solution to curb road accidents. “Will road accidents reduce by empowering auto dealers to register vehicles? Will accidents come down by privatising State road transport corporations? Will allowing aggregators like Ola and Uber curb accidents,” he asked.

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