Goa to follow Gujarat model to implement amended Motor Vehicle Act

The Goa government will follow the 'Gujarat model' when it comes to implementation of the amended provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act -- which mandate a steep increase in fines -- in January next year, Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho said on Monday.

"We have more or less readied the MV Act, we have copied the Gujarat model. In Gujarat, they said that certain fines were very steep it will affect the common man. More or less, I have also followed the Gujarat model, which many other states have also followed, because they said Gujarat led from the front," Godinho told reporters on Monday.

After the amendments to the MV act were passed in Parliament earlier this year, the Goa government had postponed implementation of the new norms - which recommend steep fines for traffic offences - till next year, following protests against the high quantum of fines from opposition parties.

"But there are certain handicaps we have and there are certain changes we are not allowed to do. Like drunken driving, the fine has straight away moved from Rs 500-Rs 1000 to Rs 10,000. States don't have the right to modify that and I am also saying that it has to be Rs 10,000. I'm not deviating from what the Centre is saying. Then driving without a licence is a similar thing," Godinho said.

The Transport Minister said that wherever possible he would try to approach the issue practically and like Gujarat slash some of the steep fines.

"But where ever it has been possible to lower the fines in the practical sense we have lowered it," Godinho said.