Now underage drivers in Haryana will have to pay a fine of Rs1,000 if they are caught by the traffic police and will have to cough up Rs2,000 for repeating the offence. The new rule has been announced by the State Government, as part of amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. This will come into effect on May 1. Currently, the fine for underage driving is Rs500.
Haryana Government on Tuesday approved the changes and the State transport will issue the notification by the end of this month.
Underage driving is increasingly becoming a serious problem for the city. For this particular offence, Gurugram traffic police have issued around 50 challans during their special drive which was started from April 15 and will be continue till April 30.
Ignoring traffic rules, underage drivers can be seen cruising on their bikes and cars on city roads, endangering their own lives as well as those of pedestrians and other drivers.
In 2014, the traffic police had issued 544 challans for underage driving. In 2015, the figure was 131 and around 107 minors were caught in 2016 by the traffic police.
Worried by this trend, the traffic police had already sent notices to schools, ask them to discourage teenagers without a proper licence from driving.
"We have not received new implementation notice yet. Whenever we get the new notification, will issue the challans as per the new amendments.
We have issued 50 challans of underage drivers during our special drive," DCP Traffic, Balbir Singh said.
The DCP added that besides the driver, there is also a provision to punish the owner of the vehicle.
According to the Motor Vehicle Act 1988, the owner of the vehicle being driven by an underage driver is an offence. The offence is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months.
Apart from this, a few other traffic violations will now have a higher penalty for repeat offences like driving without a licence, not giving way to an ambulance etc to Rs1,000 to Rs5,000.
The fine for not making way for an ambulance carrying a patient would be Rs2,000, but a subsequent offence will cost a fine of Rs5,000. Similarly, a fine of Rs500 will be paid for driving without a licence the first time. The second time, the penalty will be Rs1,000.
Carrying goods on passenger vehicle would attract a fine of Rs2,000 and on a subsequent offence, the penalty would be Rs5,000.
The compounding fee fixed for driving a vehicle without high-security registration plate would be Rs500 and Rs1,000 for the subsequent offence respectively.