Rise above party on motor vehicles bill

Rise above party on motor vehicles bill

It is unfortunate that consensus has eluded that crucial piece of legislation, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in the Rajya Sabha, after having been passed by the Lower House in 2017. India has the dubious distinction of leading the world when it comes to road accidents and fatalities, and what is essential is legal, institutional and societal reform to quickly and proactively bring down the casualty numbers nationally.

The Bill seeks to update the three-decades-old Motor Vehicles Act by hefty increases in penalties for traffic violations, rationalising third-party insurance, revamping norms for Internet-enabled taxi aggregators, holding parents/guardians accountable for juvenile drivers’ handiwork and instituting clear-cut liability norms for automotive producers in the case of vehicle defects and for builders in the case of infrastructure flaws. The Opposition charge that more centralised licensing norms for taxi aggregators would bypass state governments is disingenuous; we do need standardised guidelines for national operations. The claim that stiff on-the-spot fines for violating traffic rules would be beyond the pocket of most is plain lame. We do need hefty fines to deter unruly or unlawful traffic behaviour. The Bill proposes to raise the fine for rash driving from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 5,000; driving without a licence will attract a minimum fine of Rs. 5,000 against Rs. 500 now.

The Motor Vehicles Bill, however, must give due regard to road safety and correcting faulty road engineering with speed. What seems lacking in the Bill is scope for regular audit of road engineering, complete with functional state road safety councils and district road safety committees. MPs must rise above party divides in the matter of improving India’s road safety record.