Consensus on enhancing penalty for traffic offences

The Committee of Transport Ministers from various states here today evolved a consensus on enhancing the penalty for traffic offences.
The committee constituted in March that met for the second time also discussed bringing pedestrians and non motorised vehicles under the ambit of law with the intention of maintaining road safety.
"In Motor Vehicle Act 1988 there is a meagre Rs 100 and Rs 300 penalties for big offences. Looking at it we decided that penalties should be increased for offences under Section 177 to Section 200, there was unanimity on this," Rajasthan's Transport and Public Works Department Minister Yoonus Khan, who heads the Group of Ministers committee told reporters here.

He said penalties should be decided at the nationallevel to maintain the uniformity.
The Union Government had constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) from states to strategise on how to reduce road accidents in India, which accounts for the highest number of road deaths globally.
The committee has Transport Ministers from eightstates, including Karnataka, which after studyingdifferent aspects, will come up with their suggestions that would be implemented to reduce fatalities.

Pointing out that the Supreme Court had constituted a committee on road safety which has issued some guidelines to the states, Khan said, "We discussed it. We also discussed why don't states along with the central government come out with a policy on road safety."

"It will be better than beingmonitored by the Supreme Court's committee. We have discussed it, there is unanimity on this," he added.
Noting that there are different forms in states for permit, licence and other transport related matters, Khan said the committee feels there there shouldbe uniformity in the forms and they should be simple.
To further look into it, they had constituted a sub committee, comprising Commissioner Transport of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and Additional CommissionerTransport of Rajasthan.
The Ministers' committee also came to a consensuson recommending that 10 per cent of Central Road Fundbe set aside for road safety and they be distributed amongstates.

India accounts for five lakh road accidentsper annum in which 1.5 lakh people die while another 3 lakhare crippled for life.
Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy who was
part of the meeting said the next meeting will be inHimachal Pradesh after which the committee's final report would be submitted to the Union Transport Ministry.
Goa MinisterRamkrishna alias Sudin Dhavalikar said there was also discussion in the meeting on the issue of drunken driving and about not giving wholesale bar licenses within 100 to 200 meters from the national and state high way.
"We will have to discuss on this further," he said.

Stating that there was consensus on almost all topics that the committee discussed today, Khan said the second interim report would be submitted to the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways in the coming days.