New MV Act: A blessing or a curse?

THE GOAN NETWORK | MARCH 27, 2022, 11:53 PM IST

The Goa government has, after much delaying and dragging its feet, finally decided that it will be implementing the New Motor Vehicles Act in the state from April 1. The Act that is already in force in many states was to be implemented in Goa long back, but fearing a backlash, the government decided to postpone it until after the elections and has finally formally announced the implementation via a notice published in newspapers and no formal announcement.

It provides a perfect case for the government to try and deflect responsibility from a single minister for its implementation since the government is in a transition phase with the new transport minister yet to be named. This effectively leaves those who are angered over the decision in the middle of nowhere, with no minister to direct their ire against. Irrespective of the timing of the move, sooner or later the Act would have been introduced in Goa, which to date remains one of the last remaining states in the country to implement the legislation.

The Act, which includes steep fines, suspension of driving license as well as imprisonment for serious offences will be rolled out in Goa starting April 1 with the stated aim of making our roads safer for both pedestrians and motorists alike. Attention will now be focused on the implementation of the Act, about which there are several unanswered questions.

While there is no doubt that the police will be out to catch those without helmets, licenses and other valid documents, cracking down on such offences in itself will not make our streets and highways safer. If the police continue their current system of implementation where they wait at certain hotspots awaiting unsuspecting drivers, little will change beyond the higher fines being collected.

Instead, what the state needs is a crackdown on certain unsafe and downright dangerous practices, including drunken driving, using cellphones while driving, driving on the wrong side of the road, parking dangerously especially on high-speed roads like highways and major district roads as well as parking in a manner that severely obstructs the flow of traffic.

 What the state needs are patrolling the streets for offending motorists, not a bunch of cops waiting to pounce at the end of bridges.

Implementation of the law needs to be done to make the streets safer not to collect fines. Instead what the police are seen to be doing is waiting at spots where they are likely to get a majority of offenders. This leaves us with a situation such that the offending motorists are aware of the waiting cops and choose to follow the law only for that stretch of road.

 The other fear is that the law will only lead to an increase of bribes being paid to the police since the steep fine makes it easier for the offender to offer to pay the cop a bribe and get away rather than paying the full fine. It is an arrangement that will render the law completely ineffective. One hopes that the Act will bring about change for the better rather than for the worse.


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