Hefty hike for traffic violations approved, drunken driving fine Rs 10,000

The union cabinet on Wednesday approved the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) bill 2016, which provides for hefty penalties for violation of road safety rules with fine for driving without licence going up ten times from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000 and penalty for drunken driving going up to Rs 10,000 from Rs 2,000.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The cabinet also recommended that for persons without helmets the new proposed penalty would Rs 1,000 apart from disqualification of licence for three months. The current penalty is Rs 100. For seat belt violation, new proposed penalty is Rs 1,000, up from Rs 100.

For driving without insurance, the new proposed penalty, is Rs 2,000, up from Rs 1,000.

For offences by juveniles, the guardian/owner shall be deemed to be guilty. They will have to pay a penalty of Rs 25,000 with three years imprisonment. The juvenile will be tried under the Juvenile Justice Act and registration of his or her motor vehicle will be cancelled.

"The important provisions include increase in compensation for hit and run cases from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakh. It also has provision for payment of compensation up to Rs 10 lakh in road accidents fatalities," an official release said.

The bill provides amendments in various penalties. While the old penalty for violating road rules was Rs 100, the new minimum penalty is Rs 500. Similarly, for speeding the earlier penalty was Rs 400, the new proposed penalties for LMV (light motor vehicle) is Rs 1,000 and for medium passenger vehicle is Rs 2,000.

The new proposed penalty for unauthorized use of vehicles without license would go up to Rs 5,000 from 1,000.

For travelling without ticket new proposed penalty is Rs 500 which goes up from Rs 200.

For driving despite disqualification the new proposed penalty is Rs 10,000, which is now Rs 500. The new proposed penalty for dangerous driving would go up to Rs 5,000 from Rs 1,000.

For disobedience of orders of authorities the new proposed penalty is Rs 2,000, which is currently Rs 500.

The vehicle without permit will now have to pay up to Rs 10,000. For aggregators (violations of licencing conditions) the proposed penalty would be Rs 25,000 to Rs. 1,00,000.

The new proposed penalty for overloading is Rs 20,000 and Rs 2,000 per extra tonne. For not providing way for emergency vehicles the proposed penalty is Rs 10,000.

--IANS

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