Amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act by imposing strict punishments to the violators got whole-hearted support in the lok Sabha on Friday. Introducing the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari termed the bill is to ‘save lives’ and detailed the reforms in the motor vehicles law to slap heavy penalty on traffic violators, protect good samaritans and make vehicle-makers responsible for design defects to cut road accidents.
The basic aim of the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016 is ‘to save human lives’, Gadkari said, adding that a whopping five lakh accidents took place every year claiming around 1.5 lakh lives across the country.
Cutting across party lines, members complimented Gadkari for taking the views of all stakeholders in drafting the ‘comprehensive’ Bill. However, many of them made suggestions on certain provisions as Congress member KC Venugopal said some of them were ‘very, very good.’
Gadkari said around 30 per cent of total licenses across the country were bogus and, under provisions of the new law, a transparent online system for grant of license will be put in place under which everybody will have to undergo certain tests for getting it. The Bill, he said, seeks to make services like issuance of license totally transparent and online and provides for punitive action against officials in case of delay in issuing of the document to eligible applicants.
The proposed legislation also seeks to put in place an automated intelligent traffic management system under which anyone flouting traffic rules will face action. Under the new system, every one — from a political leader to a film actor — will have to go to the license issuing authorities under an uniform procedure and if license is not issued in three days, then the RTO will have to face action, he said, adding that a learner’s license can be availed online sitting at home.
The Bill was introduced in the lok Sabha on August 9, 2016 and then referred to the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, headed by Mukul Roy. Tathagata Satpathy (BJD), Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena), Kirron Kher (BJP), Meenakshi lekhi (BJP), Kaushalendra Kumar (JD-U), Pusphendra Singh Chandel (BJP), Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Cong), BJP MPs Gopal Shetty (BJP), Om Birla, Jayshreeben Patel, Sushil Kumar Singh, Dharamvir Gandhi (AAP)
and Siraj Uddin Ajmal (AIUDF) also participated in the debate which remained inconclusive.