The State government continues to drag its feet on implementing of Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, 2019 and has only kept deferring its decision since the new law came into force from September 1, 2019. The question here is: whose interest is being protected. The new laws are meant to safeguard people against road accidents. By showing reluctance and leniency, the law-breaker is being protected, not the law-abider. Or, are we protecting the tourists who have a penchant for breaking rules?
After a series of postponements, it was in December 2020 that transport minister Mauvin Godinho announced that the new rules will come into force from the second week of January, after a cabinet discussion on the proposal. There is still no clarity on the date because there are divisions within the cabinet on implementation, and Godinho is awaiting the outcome of his discussion with Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari at a national-level conference on Tuesday.
Minister for Garbage Management Michael Lobo has openly batted against the implementation citing poor road infrastructure. But is the lack of infrastructure a justifiable reason to keep the law on hold? The common thinking is that when the road infrastructure is poor or sub-par, there is all the more reason to bring about vehicular discipline. Lobo argues that Goa’s infrastructure works picked up the pace lately, and will need another year to complete. It is baffling to understand direct co-relation with infrastructure and laws.
The need of the hour is to understand the damage inflicted by road accidents. Covid-19 may have played havoc with the lives of people with over 750 deaths, but thankfully there is a vaccine on the block. Road fatalities, however, are a consistent worry over the years and have claimed thousands of young lives. In November 2020 itself, there were 242 road accidents out of which 17 were fatal. The recent road accident of Shripad Naik in Uttar Kannada district of Karnataka highlights the fact that disciplining vehicular traffic needs serious attention across the nation, and Goa is no exception.
On Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with Gadkari flagged off the National Road Safety Month. Very soon there will be awareness created involving State governments about the causes of road accidents and measures to prevent them. But even as the State joins in this mission and starts preaching safety, the government has to introspect on the precedent it is setting by keeping crucial road rules in abeyance. It has to ponder over failures of enforcement, and the pressing need to bring in some order on road.
On the surface, the plan may be to dilute penalties. Centre's directive barring States from lowering fines could have dashed those hopes. But the State is well within its right to practice leniency on the road, at least during the initial phase, treating offences based on the seriousness. We need to learn lessons for nations which have reigned in road discipline. Instead of making concerted efforts to extract political bandwidth on every possible opportunity, there is a need to value human life.
