Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said that changes in the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019, would not affect the state's power.
Replying on the discussion on Bill in Lok Sabha, the Minister said the amended law would weed out corruption, improve road safety and usher in the use of more technology to regulate traffic.
Dismissing the Congress' allegation that the Union government is trying to curtail powers of states with the proposed changes, the Minister said it will be entirely up to states to decide if they want to adopt the new law or not.
He said the proposed law would help to check corruption in RTO and will help to reduce the accident rates.
The existing law is 30 years old and the penalty for traffic rule violators is very low, he said, adding that this does not instill fear of law.