The Government on Monday introduced a Bill in Lok Sabha to bring in provisions for imposing higher penalties for violations of the Motor Vehicles Act and protection of good samaritans.
The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019, introduced by Minister of State for Road Transport V K Singh in the Lok Sabha, seeks to bring in provisions for compensation of Rs 5 lakh for death and Rs 2.5 lakh for grievous injury in a motor vehicle accident.
The motor vehicle owner or the insurer would pay the compensation to the legal heirs or the victim.
The Bill also seeks to simplify rules for registration of new motor vehicles by leaving it on the dealers to make an application for it.
The ministry brought the Bill for consideration and passage in the Lok Sabha as it could not get the nod of the Rajya Sabha during the previous regime of the Modi government.
“Dealer will do the registration and submit the registration fee to the RTO (Road Transport Office). I do not want to say here what happens during the registration of vehicles at present,” Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said.
Responding to some of the Opposition members who said proposed amendments would take away the rights of the states, he assured the House that the Union government had no such intentions.
“There is nothing binding or mandatory on the states. States can decide whether they want to implement it or not. We do not intend to interfere in the jurisdiction of the states. We want to improve our transport service. We are doing it to save lives,” he said, urging members to support the Bill.
The bill stipulates for changes in the current provisions for grant of driving licence and provide an online facility for learning licence.
“Around 30% of driving licences in the country are bogus. About 1.5 lakh people die and 5 lakh people get injured in road accidents every year,” Gadkari said.