In a sigh of relief for people protesting against hefty penalties under the amended Motor Vehicle Act, they now have an additional three months time to get their vehicle documents updated.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday made a partial relaxation for the commuters from paying fine for violation of traffic rules.
Patnaik directed transport and police officials to handle the situations sympathetically instead of being harsh with the motorists who fail to produce necessary documents.“The Chief Minister has directed the enforcement agencies not to aggressively go on an overdrive but rather counsel and handhold the public to facilitate compliance with the amended provisions of MV Act,” the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said in a release.
Patnaik also asked the Transport Department to augment public services, strengthen the facilitation centres, open extra counters, and conduct camps in public institutions to enable the motor vehicle users to update their compliance status.
“This process would continue over the next three months so that adequate time is made available to the public to ensure compliance, Massive Road Safety awareness campaign would be carried out to sensitise public on the new norms,” the release stated.
Patnaik also appealed to motor vehicle users to obey traffic rules and desist from dangerous driving which would endanger their lives and that of others.
In a related development, Commerce and Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera on the day admitted that the penalties are hefty and said the State Government is contemplating to bring in some changes in the Rules under the new Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act-2019.Behera said the State Government is weighing options to lessen the amount of fine imposed on traffic violators.The changes in the new fine amounts may be decided after a review meeting to be held on Tuesday, sources said.
“We realised that the fine amounts are too high. Though we cannot change the Act as it has been introduced by the Centre, we might change some Rules under the Act and thereby bring some relaxation for the people,” said the Minister.
