Giving major relief to the city denizens, the Chandigarh Administration has decided to impose minimum penalty for various traffic offences under the Motor Vehicle Act, 2019. The Administration had earlier imposed maximum penalty under MVA 2019, which came into effect from September 1.

For instance, the penalty for overspeeding in the city, in case of two-wheeler would now be Rs 1000 for first offence, Rs 1000 in case of light motor vehicle, Rs 2000 in case of medium goods and heavy goods passenger vehicle. Under the MVA 2019, the fine for overspeeding ranges between Rs 1000 - Rs 2000 for light motor vehicle, Rs 2,000 - Rs 4,000 for medium passenger or goods vehicles and the UT Administration had earlier imposed maximum penalty of Rs 2000 and Rs 4000 respectively on the violators.

Punjab Governor and UT Administration VP Singh Badnore had on Wednesday in a high-level meeting of senior UT officers gave approval to the imposition of minimum penalty for certain offences under MVA 2019 in the city. A notification in this regard will be issued in a day or two by the Administration.

Under Section 184, dangerous driving (only for use of handheld communication devices), the fine would be Rs 2000 for first offence and Rs 5000 for subsequent offence in the city.  Under the MVA 2019, for dangerous driving, first time offenders face imprisonment of six months to one year and/or fine of between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000.

For disobedience of orders of authorities (Sec 179 i), the fine imposed will now be Rs 1000 as compared to maximum penalty of Rs 2000 imposed earlier here. Similarly, for passenger withholding the required information or giving false information (179 ii), the fine would be Rs 1500 as compared to maximum penalty of Rs 2000 earlier.

In case of violation related to overloading of two-wheeler here, the violators will now face a fine of Rs 1000 and disqualification of driving licence for three months instead of maximum penalty of Rs 2000 and disqualification of driving licence for three months.

However, the traffic violations like speeding/racing, driving without insurance, driving without licence, unauthorized use of vehicles without licence, driving despite disqualification, violation related to seat belt and helmet among others would still invite huge penalty in the union territory of Chandigarh.

Driving without license would attract penalty of Rs 5000 while for driving without seat belt, the violators will have to pay maximum penalty of Rs 1000. For driving without helmet, traffic fine would be Rs 1000 with disqualification for three months for licence.

Notably, the MVA 2019 had caused quite a stir not only in the city but across the country due to exorbitant challan fee levied under it. Infact, several states namely West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Punjab had put on hold the implementation of stricter fines to boost road discipline.

In Chandigarh, a delegation of Chandigarh Congress, Chandigarh based NGO-ArriveSAFE among other organizations had approached the UT Administration urging it either not to impose the heavy challaning fee or bring it down under various offences in the city.

As per the data tabled in the Parliament recently, after the implementation of provisions of Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, 2019, more than 56000 challans were issued in the city. Overall collection from traffic rule violations this year till October stood at Rs 5.58 crore (Rs 5,58,25,650) in the city.