When the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 was published in the Gazette on August 9, upon getting the assent of the President, there was no confusion over the September 1 implementation of its provisions and levying of steep penalties for violation of road rules.
However, over the last fortnight, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the State governments are on a sticky wicket over the Act which was rolled out to ensure road discipline and reduce fatalities.
Gadkari’s solution
Motorists have reacted with outrage at the imposition of fines. They are upset that governments are intent on rule enforcement without upgrading road infrastructure. With the clamour for penalty reduction getting louder, the Kerala government has asked the law enforcers not to be stern on violators.
While road safety experts are against dilution of penalties that were hiked by over 10 times, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari offered a solution by announcing that the States can choose the quantum of fines.
Gujarat grabbed the opportunity and became the first State to reduce the fines. It has been pointed out that of the 63 clauses in the Act, States have the power to decide the penalty on 24 clauses and sub-clauses. The States can revise fines for more than two dozen provisions that are compoundable, but law enforcers say penalties for non-compoundable offences like drunk driving, where the nature of the offence is grave, cannot be revised. But, the Act is silent on the powers the States have to reduce the penalties as announced by the Minister.
“There is no second opinion on the need to amend the Act. The manner in which it was implemented has led to the present situation,” said city-based road safety expert Sony Thomas.
Instead of directly imposing fines, Mr. Thomas said, a focussed campaign should have been carried out initially by the law enforcers, taking the public into confidence. The law enforcers should shed the conventional mode of campaign and convince motorists on the ill-effects of drunk driving, speeding, non-usage of helmets and seatbelts.
As much as 30% to 50% of the road accidents can be avoided if the roads are good, he said, quoting international studies. But, the Act is silent on the road engineering aspects. The ₹1 lakh fine imposed on the contractor for poor quality of roads is very less.
Former State Police Chief Jacob Punnose is of the view that the fine system needs to be fine-tuned. Fines promote public safety, but there is a distinction between an effectively enforceable fine and a fine which defeats the purpose. He said greater manpower and better use of technology were needed for effective engineering and enforcement. Effective enforcement should not be confused with harsh fines.
The flipside
“Of course, if fines are too low, they need to be revised. But if the fine is too large, though quite a large number will start obeying, an equally large number will think of ways to escape,” he said. Many would vehemently protest or challenge the charge in courts denying the offence. Besides clogging the judicial system, it would increase workload of the police.
The Kerala Police detects and fines eight million traffic offences annually. “One can imagine the chaos even if one million of them go to court. The camera-based systems should be strengthened to ensure that at least once a week, each of the 12 million vehicles and 20 million drivers on the roads are digitally monitored,” he added.
M.S. Venugopal, Chairman, Federation of Residents’ Association Thiruvananthapuram (FRAT) said the priority of the government should be to repair damaged roads and fill potholes to ensure road-users’ safety.
Private bus operators too view the Act as as a deft move of the Union government to corporatise the transport sector. “Hefty fines will affect motorists and pave way for large-scale corruption,” said Lawrence Babu, general secretary of the Kerala State Private Bus Operators Federation.
The big question doing the rounds is whether Kerala will follow the Gujarat model and make the provisions of the Act less stringent and reduce the penalties.
The Transport Commissionerate and the Law Department are looking at the options to be presented to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran on Monday.
