VASCO
Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho on Monday clarified that the new Motor Vehicle (MV) Act would be implemented in the State from May 1, and not from April 16, as was notified in the gazette.
Godinho said the intervening period would be utilised by the transport department to carry out awareness programmes across the State before the new MV Act is implemented.
“The new MV Act has been notified in the State and steep fines will be enforced. The State government will issue a corrigendum in the gazette stating that the new MV Act will be implemented from May 1 and not from April 16.
“During this intervening period, starting from Wednesday, we will create public awareness of the implementation of the MV Act. All assistant directors of transport (ADTs) will be instructed to take up public awareness programmes in their respective jurisdictions, including students and youth, to educate them on the steep fines and to avoid violating traffic rules. We will conduct these programmes across Goa,” said Godinho.
Godinho said the public would be reminded not to break traffic rules to avoid the steep fines.
“If people don’t break laws and traffic rules mandated by the new MV Act, there is no question of paying the steep fines. I will have a presentation for the media on Wednesday so that they are aware and can educate public about the new MV Act, as part of efforts to bring about traffic safety and discipline on Goan roads,” said Godinho.
The minister said the State government had delayed the implementation of the new MV Act because repairs of roads had not been taken up on account of the lockdown and the pandemic.
“Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced that roadworks across Goa have been taken up on war footing and we had to implement the new MV Act as it was long overdue and it will be applicable from May 1.”
“The new MV act was initially notified to be implemented from April 16, because we had to give a date to the Supreme Court-appointed safety committee with judges of Supreme Court and High Courts as members of the committee.”
“When the committee took stock of the situation, they said Goa was doing fairly well but pulled us up for only the non-implementation of the new MV Act.”
“We will implement the new MV Act from May 1 and not from April 16 only because I believe that the public has to be fully aware of the new MV act and we believe in educating the public on this new MV Act before we can finally implement it in the State,” said Godinho.
