the goan I network
PANAJI
Former deputy chief minister Sudin Dhavalikar, who has held the Transport portfolio in Goa for over a decade before he was sacked by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in March this year, has strongly
batted for immediate implementation of the amended Motor Vehicles Act and the enhanced fines for various traffic violations.
Dhavalikar who addressed a press conference at his MGP party office in the city on Wednesday, questioned the logic of Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat of linking the implementation of the MV Act amendments to repair and improvement of road conditions and other road transport infrastructure.
“The amendments are comprehensive and good for clearing the chaos in the transport sector of the country,” Dhavalikar said and rubbished the Congress demand that the implementation be kept on hold until roads and related infrastructure is put in place and order.
He said the amendments to the MV Act were good and very much needed while making a strong case for its immediate implementation.
Dhavalikar also said he was dead against reduction of any of the fines but admitted that the penalties for certain traffic violations were unreasonable.
The former minister, who also held the PWD portfolio for several consecutive years, said: “It will be a mistake to keep the amended Act in cold storage because of potholes.”
Dhavalikar put the blame for the potholed roads in the State on the excessive and heavy rains that pounded Goa this year.
“It is the heavy rainfall in Goa that damages the roads,” Dhavalikar said and refuted the notion that he should own up a share of the blame for the pathetic condition of roads as he was PWD minister continuously for seven years since 2012, except for the few months that he was sacked from the cabinet by then Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly elections in Goa.
Dhavalikar was transport minister continuously from 2007 till March this year, save for a couple of brief breaks of a few months in between and was part of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways task force that drafted the changes in the MV Act which have been widely criticized across the country.
