As we all know that the new Motor Vehicles Act came into force from September 1, but there are still two states who have not implemented the penalties for traffic violations under the new act. These two state governments are of Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, both Congress-ruled.
Motor Vehicles Act 2019
The 2019 Bill had been tabled in the Lok Sabha by the Road Transport and Highways Union Minister, Nitin Gadkari. The main aim of the Bill is to impose stricter penalties for road traffic violations.
The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath said his government is first going to study the new amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act and after which they will make a decision. Nath also said that he does not agree with the heightened penalties that have imposed for violations of traffic rules, as per to an IANS report.
Kamal Nath also said in a tweet, “Notification has not been issued in MP, so it will not apply here. We will first study the new provisions, which will be deliberated upon. We will also study how our neighbouring states are reacting to this,”
Stating that the increased penalty for traffic rule violations would put extra load on the common man, Congress-ruled Punjab has also declined to implement the stricter Motor Vehicles Act for the time being.
She added, “We will take a call after studying the penalty amount that is abnormally high,” state Transport Minister Razia Sultana told reporters in Jalandhar. “We will implement the Act after reviewing the penalties with the Chief Minister,” she added.
Two States Yet To Impose New Act for Traffic Violations
The original bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in the year 2017, but failed to get the authorization of the Rajya Sabha. It aims to make changes more than 60 sections and to introduce several other new sections.
The Bill, which was awaiting for sanction in the Rajya Sabha, failed after the term of the 16th Lok Sabha completed. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, was introduced in the Upper House in the year 2017 on April but was mentioned to a select panel. After taking into account the panel’s commendation, the Bill was introduced again in the Rajya Sabha but again the argument on the bill continued inconclusive before finally passing the bill.
Changes in the Motor Vehicle Act comprises of as much as Rs 10,000 fine for drink and driving, Penalty for blocking the emergency vehicles way, including ambulance, fire brigade as well as PCRs.
Punjab Additional Director General of Police (Traffic) S S Chauhan on the other hand said taht the amount of fine would be soon decided in a meeting of all shareholders for the carrying out of the amended Act.
“The state has powers to make amendments in the law as it is a state subject,” he said, declaring that the idea was to prevent people from violating the traffic rules, not to raise the state treasury.
