The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved amendments to the Motor Vehicle Bill 2016.
The Bill propose to improve the transport scenario in the country by permitting the States to grant exemptions in Stage carriage and contract carriage permits for promoting rural transport, public transport, last mile connectivity and for passenger convenience and road safety.
The important provisions of the bill include increase in compensation for Hit & Run cases from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakhs and provision for payment of compensation upto Rs 10 lakh in road accidents fatalities.
Improving delivery of services to the stakeholders using e-Governance is one of the major focuses of the Bill, which include enabling online learning licenses, increasing validity period for driving licenses, doing away with the requirements of educational qualifications for transport licenses are some of the features.
The Bill proposes that for the offences committed by Juveniles the guardian / owner of the motor vehicle shall be deemed to be guilty and the Juvenile to be tried under JJ Act; and registration of Motor Vehicle to be cancelled with a fine Rs 25,000 and 3 years of imprisonment.
To improve the registration process for new vehicles, registration at the end of the dealer is being enabled and restrictions have been imposed on temporary registration.
In the area of road safety, the bill proposes to increase penalties to act as deterrent against traffic violations and a penalty of Rs 10,000 has been proposed for drunken driving.
Also, to facilitate transport solutions for Divyang, the bottlenecks have been removed in respect of grant of driving licenses as well as alterations in the vehicles to make it fit for use of Divyang.
