The Government on Monday introduced two important Bills in the Lok Sabha — one to amend Motor Vehicles Act that provides for higher penalties for violations and protection of good samaritans, among other provisions and the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill that provides for banning of commercial surrogacy with a provision that only close relatives will be permitted to act as surrogates to infertile couples for “ethical altruistic” reasons.
The Motor Vehicle bill was passed in the previous Lok Sabha but could not be approved by the Rajya Sabha. Several members of the opposition raised concern over certain provisions in the bill and also sought to say that it could that it may encroach the powers of the states to legislate on the road transport.
Surrogacy bill was also passed in the Lok Sabha in 2018 but could not get passage in the upper house.
Speaking on the Motor Vehicle bill, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said the central government is not looking to take away the rights of states and urged the House to pass the legislation which would help in saving more lives. The Minister said around 30 per cent of driving licences in the country are bogus. About 1.5 lakh people die and 5 lakh people get injured in road accidents every year, he said .
The bill seeks to increase penalties for violations, facilitate grant of online learning licence, simplified provisions for insurance to provide expeditious help to accident victims and their families, and protection of good samaritans.
As per the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the bill, the period for renewal of transport licence would be increased to five years from three years and enable licensing authority to grant licence to differently-abled persons.
Another provision is to raise the time limit for renewal of driving licence from one month to one year before and after the expiry date.
“My department has failed to pass the bill in the last five years but the number of accidents has reduced by around 3-4 per cent in the last five years while the incidence came down by around 15 per cent in Tamil Nadu during the same period,” he noted.
Trinamool Congress member Saugata Roy opposed the bill, saying certain provisions would take away powers of state governments and would also infringe on their rights. Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said he was opposing a few provisions of the bill and not in entirety.
Another important bill that seeks to ban Commercial surrogacy was introduced in the house. The bill was passed by Lok Sabha in December, 2018 but lapsed as it could not get nod from Parliament.
According to the bill, only close relatives will be permitted to act as surrogates to infertile couples for “ethical altruistic” reasons.
The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha that also provides for constitution of surrogacy boards at national and state levels, as well as that the intending couples should not abandon such a child under any condition.
Only Indian couples who have been legally married for at least five years would be allowed to opt for surrogacy, as per the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the bill, which was introduced by Health and Family Welfare minister Harsh Vardhan.
The bill seeks to “allow ethical altruistic surrogacy to the intending infertile Indian married couple between the age of 23-50 years and 26-55 years for female and male, respectively”.
A woman should be allowed to act as a surrogate mother only once and should be a close relative of the intending couple and “should be an ever married woman having a child of her own and between the age of 25-35 years”.