BackRajya Sabha passes amendments to Motor Vehicles Bill
The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week. It will now require President’s nod to become a lawThe Bill was passed by a majority vote of 108-13, while also escaping scrutiny of a select committee
PremiumNEW DELHI : In what may overhaul the country’s transportation system, the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the proposed amendments to the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week. It will now require President’s nod to become a law.
The Bill was passed by a majority vote of 108-13, while also escaping scrutiny of a select committee.
The bill aims to address crucial issues such as road safety, reducing deaths due to road accidents, imposing stiffer penalties on violation of rules, and weed out corruption in India’s road transport system.
The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, was introduced in the lower house in August, 2016. Thereafter the bill got its nod in April 2017. It was then sent to the Rajya Sabha select committee. The bill, however, did not get the upper house’s approval and lapsed with the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.
The Opposition on Wednesday however, alleged that the Centre has misled Rajya Sabha on the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill as it was "defective" and not in the form passed in Lok Sabha last week.
Senior Congress leader B.K Hariprasad raised a point of order in this regard saying, “It is a defective bill," adding that "The clause 94 was not there in the 1989 Act nor it is there in the Act which was passed in Lok Sabha. It has come to this House without taking approval from the other House,"
In a first, the government will develop a system for cashless treatment of road accident victims during the golden hour -- time period lasting one hour after a traumatic injury during which there is the highest likelihood of preventing death by providing medical care. Besides, the proposed law seeks to protect good Samaritans or citizens who come forward and rescue accident victims will not be harassed by the law.
At the same time, The Bill increases the minimum compensation for hit and run cases from ₹25,000 to two lakh rupees in case of death and in case of grievous injury, from ₹12,500 to ₹50,000.
Gadkari said, “Rs14500 crore is being spent on safeguarding spots which are vulnerable to road accidents. Road engineering is responsible for road accidents and it is wrong to blame drivers. In this regard, 786 spots have been chosen and Rs14500 crore has been infused," Gadkari said, adding that it was imperative to identify and improve “fatal spots."
At the same time, the government has brought in a provision wherein if road conditions are not up to the mark, road contractors will be penalized.
Towards safety issues, the Bill provides for a National Road Safety Board, to be created by the central government through a notification. The proposed law has suggested higher penalty for offences such as driving without a licence, speeding, dangerous driving, drunk driving and for vehicles plying without a permit. Those who do not give way to an ambulance or fire brigade may soon have to face a hefty fine of as much as ₹10,000 or/and imprisonment up to six months.
Obtaining a driving licence (DL) could get tougher if an individual don’t have adequate skills as driving test. The process of obtaining DL will become technology driven, reducing human interface to curb corruption. Currently, licence testing is manual and untrained people also get licence. A national register of driving licence will be created that will comprise licence data from throughout the country to make transfer of vehicles across states easier and weed out fake DLs.
The government will also have the power to regulate taxi aggregators such as Ola and Uber as presently, the law did not recognize cab aggregators. Adding the word ‘aggregators’ in the Act will give power to the Centre to frame guidelines for these companies and make them more compliant.
Road contractors can be penalized for faulty road designs. Currently, there is no such provision under the law.
There is also a provision of a national transport policy, where the Centre, in consultation with state governments, will develop a medium- and long-term policy framework for all forms of road transport.
Likewise, the Bill allows the central government to order for recall of motor vehicles if a defect in the vehicle may cause damage to the environment, or the driver, or other road users.
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