The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 came into force in Sikkim with effect from Thursday.
The Motor Vehicle Division of the state transport department issued a notification regarding the implementation of the Act in the state.
Addressing a press conference at Gangtok, the secretary to the transport department, Raju Basnet said the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 received the President’s assent August 9 this year and has been implemented in various states.
“We wanted to first understand the feedbacks from other states which have already implemented the amended Act. We have received overall good feedbacks and results from these states,” said Basnet.
He said other states have mentioned that the new amended Act has been successful in reduction of traffic violation and maintaining a disciplined traffic management.
“After receiving good feedbacks from other states, the department has decided to implement the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act in the state after taking prior approval from the government,” the secretary informed.
He mentioned that now fines would be collected as per the new amended Act in the state.
He also informed about various enhanced fines and other provisions of the amended Act.
Basnet also said after long consultations with various stakeholders and people, the government of India has enacted this Act so that it can benefit the road transportation.
He mentioned that fines were around ten times more than the existing fines.
Basnet added that there were stringent fines mainly for over-speeding, over-loading, driving without licenses and others.
He informed that double fines would be charged on violating rules by enforcement agencies under this new amended Act.
Basnet mentioned that in 2016, there were 85 deaths in road accidents, 87 deaths in 2017 while 85 people died last year and this year till October a total of 137 road accidents have been reported with deaths of 72 people.
He further said the department wants to implement the new amended Act strictly to address the issue of road accidents.
Basnet informed that the department has been working on technical processes to implement the amended Act.
