Motorists, who have been up in arms over the high penalties for traffic violations under the Centre’s Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019, will finally get some relief.
The State government has reduced the penalty amount for 18 offences, including driving without registering vehicles, over-speeding, using mobile phones while driving, not wearing helmets, and driving uninsured vehicles, among others.
In Bengaluru, riding without helmet was one of the highest offences reported. The State government has reduced the penalty by 50%. Driving a car without wearing seat belt has also been slashed by half from ₹1,000 to ₹500.
For several offences, the State government has cut the penalty by categorising the vehicles. The Centre had fixed ₹5,000 for dangerous driving for the first time and ₹10,000 for subsequent offence. The State government has reduced this by fixing the fine at ₹1,500 for bikes and autos, ₹3,000 for cars, and ₹5,000 for other vehicles. However, it has retained the fee of ₹10,000 for subsequent offences.
The penalty for using vehicles without registration has been brought from ₹5,000 to ₹2,000 for bikes, ₹3,000 for cars; however, the fine for the ‘other’ category of vehicles fixed by the Central government will continue. The Union government had fixed ₹10,000 for subsequent violations, but the State government has decided to do away with that.
Steep reduction
In another major decision, the State has drastically cut down the fine charged for blocking ambulances from ₹10,000 to ₹1,000.
Following Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s announcement on the revision, a notification was published in the official gazette on Saturday evening.
The revised penalties are effective immediately, read the notification.
A senior official of the Transport Department said: “We have studied and partially followed the notification issued by the Gujarat government while revising the penalty.
Reduced by 50%
In some cases, the penalty has been reduced by 50%, for several offences we have introduced the category of vehicles for first offence and retained the fine fixed by the Central government for the second offence. Public interest has been protected while fixing the fine.”
The official further added that for certain offence such as drink and drive, only courts could impose the penalty after enforcement authorities refer the cases to them and the State government could not make modifications to the rules.
