Guj govt hikes penalty against traffic rule violators

Gujarat Government today revised the prevalent penalty structure for various traffic rule violations and imposed a massive hike of up to 10 times on the fine collected from such offenders.
A notification for implementation of the new penalty structure will soon be issued by the government, an official release said.
The decision on penalty hike was taken during the meeting of State Road Safety Council at Gandhinagar today under the chairmanship of State Road Transport Minister Vijay Rupani, it added.
"The present penalty structure has been in place since last many years. There is a need to revise this structure. Therefore, we have decided to increase the penalties as per the recent guidelines of the Centre," Rupani said.

One of the key features of the new structure is the introduction of steep penalty for repeat offenders, which was not there in the present system.
As per the new structure, there is no change in the Rs100 penalty taken for common offences, such as not wearing helmet and seatbelt, driving vehicle from the wrong side of the road, jumping traffic signals, etc.

However, as per the new provision for repeat offenders, if the they are caught for the second time, they will have to shell out Rs 300 instead of old penalty of Rs 100, the release said.
The penalty for under-age offenders, who drive vehicles without licence, has been increased from Rs 300 to Rs 500. The same is applicable to adults, who are caught driving vehicles without licence.

For over-speeding, the offenders will be charged Rs 400 instead of Rs 300 for the first offence. If they are caught for the second time, they will be charged Rs 1,000, the release said.
Taking a strong stand against those who pollute air by
using non-approved fuels, such as kerosene in their vehicles, the offenders will be slapped a penalty of Rs 1,000, which is just Rs 200 at present.
Further, the penalty for vehicles emitting excess smoke has now been increased up to Rs 1000, which is just Rs 100 at present, the release said.
Similarly, such steep penalties are imposed on vehicles which are running without fitness certificate. At present, the penalty for this violation is Rs 500.

Now, as per the new structure, the violators have to shell out Rs 5000 for the first time and Rs 10,000 for the second time violation.