Why MP won’t implement the amended Motor Vehicles Act and its new penalties.
Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, had announced last month that the amended Motor Vehicles Act will come into effect from 1 September. The updated Act is intended to be applucable across the entire country, but it turns out that one state in India is not very keen about the new regulations — Madhya Pradesh. In fact, according to an ANI report, the state’s law minister PC Sharma said the new penalties introduced under the purview of the updated Motor Vehicles Act are exorbitant and that the new legislation will not be implemented in Madhya Pradesh.
Sharma said, “The Central government should review the latest rules. Chief Minister Kamal Nath has said that the notification has not been issued and therefore, from today, 1st September, the traffic rules will not apply here. It will be deliberated upon.” He went on to add, “On the new traffic rules made by the Central government, I think that fines like Rs 5000 for driving without helmet or fine of Rs 10,000 are wrong and excessive.”
The amended Motor Vehicles Act received the nod from both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha last month. While the new regulations tend to various facets, among the biggest changes is the new penalties for different road traffic law violations. The revised penalties, some of them entirely new, including a fine of ₹10,000 for driving a vehicle after being disqualified and of up to ₹10,000 for not giving way to emergency vehicles, seek to rectify the country’s state of road safety, which, is quite horrifying at the moment.
Listed below are the revised penalties for some of the most common traffic offences:
1. Over-speeding: ₹1,000 – ₹2,000
2. Driving without insurance: ₹2,000
3. Riding without helmet: ₹1,000 and suspension of license for three months
4. Disobedience of authorities’ orders: ₹2,000
5. Unauthorized use of vehicles without license: ₹5,000
6. Driving without license: ₹5,000
7. Driving after disqualification: ₹10,000
8. Dangerous driving: ₹5,000
9. Drink driving: ₹10,000
10. Not wearing seatbelt: ₹1,000
11. Overloading vehicles: ₹20,000
The new legislation also empowers authorities to effectively deal with offences like drink driving, underage driving, overloading, and dangerous driving among several others. In addition to that, the new Act will facilitate the introduction of nationwide regulations for cab aggregators as well as fines of up to ₹1 lakh for violations of traffic laws.
