Motor Vehicle Act: For now, old penalty to continue in Punjab

The Punjab government on Thursday put on hold the implementation of the amended Motor Vehicle Act in the state.

State Transport Minister Razia Sultana here in an official press release said old penalty would continue to be charged for traffic-related violations until "a decision was taken on the implementation of the amended Act".

Admitting that traffic rule violations were a major cause of road accidents, for which violators must be punished, the minister said at the same time "people must not be burdened with huge penalties".

"In a welfare state like India, the idea behind such kind of penalties was to deter people from violating traffic rules, not to increase the state treasury," the minister said, adding that the government would soon take a call on this.

Informing about the initiatives taken by the state government to tackle traffic-related violations, the minister said the department had recently decided to equip the traffic police with e-challan machines.

A decision to establish a road safety secretariat had been taken, which would keep an eye on vehicular traffic all across the state and be responsible for ensuring compliance of the road safety norms, she said.

A few days ago, Punjab Additional Director General of Police (Traffic) S S Chauhan had said the state government would soon call a meeting of all stakeholders with regard to the implementation of the amended Act.

Parliament in July had passed the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which seeks to tighten road traffic regulations such as the issuance of driving licence and imposed stricter penalties for traffic-related violations.