Stiff penalties in new motor vehicle Act 2019 has got mixed reactions. At face value most of the citizens have welcomed the amendment but are not happy with the revised amount for traffic violation .
NaMo lead government has already introduced lot of new laws and plenty of new laws are yet to come in remaining term.
Knowing or unknowingly the government has successfully implemented some schemes like Swach Bharat Abhiyan, Jandhan Account, Give Up Subsidy (LPG). If you look at the success of these schemes you would realize that these were big pain areas in the life of masses. They were felt in everyday life and people had accepted the lack of governance as part of their life. When each of these schemes were announced, initially the citizens did not believe but with the effort of government, the beneficiaries enrolled and others motivated.
Same thing happened with removal of 370 and 35A. Barring a handful citizens most of the citizens celebrated the move. So what is the reason for support or resistance?
The answer lies in enrolling the citizens to a particular problem. Then taking all stakeholder into confidence including the states and executing agencies. In the past successful schemes were heavily advertised and backed up by PR work. There can’t be a shortcut to a serious problem.
The government implements the scheme without realising that their own party ruled states will dilute it and some greedy traffic police officer sees this as an opportunity to celebrate early Diwali and try their skills on free style fighting.
For any law to be implemented it is very important that the ruling party states are in sync with the central government.
Two– enrol citizens by way of advertising – Feature Advantage and Benefits of the proposed law.
Three– Engage the law enforcement agencies, in this case DG’s of all state should have been sensitized ( in turn they make viral videos appealing citizens and their police force to cooperate for safe and secure driving experience. This can still be done to earn confidence of citizens and also sensitize the police officers to be human while dealing with citizens).
Four– Get family of road accident and road rage victims to speak. Get police officers and doctors to speak about their experience of attending to road accidents and road rage cases. Make short viral video and circulate them in regional languages on all form of news and entetainment media and social media. Government can take the liberty of using Aadhar database and send direct messages to citizens who own vehicles and driving license.
Five– Some metro city have CCTV and challan is issued online after taking a screenshot of the traffic violation. A typical example of traffic violation on zebra crossing (if the vehicle is few inches on the zebra crossing, send him/her a warning instead of penalty. Look at the intention. On Makar Sankranti I have seen traffic police politely giving til laddu packets to traffic violators in Navi Mumbai. Obviously the intention was to create goodwill. We already have a process of cancelling the license after few warnings. Why not have simple warning sent on mobile for first offence (not wearing seat belt, not wearing helmet or number plate not displayed as per guidelines). This can be recorded. Same for fine as well. Start with small amount and keep increasing it for successive violation with an upper limit. We are living in a technology era. The police officers and motorists should be made aware about DigiLocker and mParivahan app.
Citizens are angry with the penalty amount is high and some police officers are seen misusing the new act and even hitting the motorists. Ministry of Transport and Home should work out a formal way where citizens can record highhanded approach and send it to a grievance department for this purpose. The enquiry should be time bound and justice delivered. The new MV Act 2019 speaks about body wearable cameras. Civil and traffic police on duty in public places should be given such camera to prevent any kind of blame gaming with the citizens.
We are competing with China in many ways. Many would be surprised to know that India has more accident cases than China. Road accident is going down in China and going up in India.
As per NCRB data there is an increase of 44.2% accidents including death between 2001 and 2011. Roughly we would be touching one death every three minute by 2020.
According to a Prof Sanjay Singh (IIM Lucknow Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training) the causes of Road Accidents is Driver Fault 78%, Fault of Pedestrian 2%, Defective Roads 1.4%, Defective motor vehicle 1.9%. (Study from 2013 Pan India Data).
While the focus is on need to have updated vehicle related documents and penalty amount to reduce road accidents, the government should start a special drive to Stop Road Rage.
Road Rage is a major area of concern. Over speeding and creating inconvenience for other motorists is common on Indian roads. This accounts for 41% of death on road.
Most of the motorists who are involved in Road Rage enjoy doing so. They are not caught and therefore not aware of the consequences. Same goes for the victims as well. The victims are law abiding citizens and not aware of ways and means to eliminate any kind of verbal or physical abuse. Most of the victims may not be aware of IPC 319, 320 320, 323 and 325. A lot of education for both sides is required in this direction.
Funds collected from fines can be invested in education to eliminate Road Rage and following traffic rules.
Section 198A which throws light on punishment for designated authority, contractor, consultant or concessionaire. The new law has an upper limit of INR 1 lac. This is where the government should have a relook. The penal action should be on lines with the fine imposed on citizens for traffic violation.
In a civil society the penal action should be at par and not one sided. If it is one sided and citizens are seen to be at the receiving end then acceptance of law would be under pressure and not voluntary.
Citizens have a big heart and they have proved this time and again (during demonetization, Give Up Subsidy, etc). If there were stiff penalty and other legal action for law enforcement agencies and contractor in new MV Act, the response of the citizens would have been much better.
Picture Credit: Screenshots from Twitter
Ref Reading: New MV Act 2019
