Angul: With hefty penalties for traffic violations coming into effect from September 1 under the Central government’s amended Motor Vehicles Act, Angul police and transport officials fined at least 12 persons till Sunday evening.
While the RTO officials collected fines in the day, police officials did that job in the night. Sources said the RTO and police personnel had penalised 12 persons and imposed Rs 13,000 fines totally on them.
The Centre amended the MV Act 2019 and increased the fine amount manifold to bring down accident deaths in the country. Accident-related deaths increased in Odisha by nearly 11 percent in 2018 compared to 2017. While 4,790 accident deaths were reported in the state in 2017, the casualty figure shot up to 5,315 in 2018.
Traffic violators booked and fined under the new regime included persons riding bikes without helmets or insurance papers or driving licence. The riders were given penalty tickets and asked to pay the fine within seven days at the police station or within 13 days at the RTO.
Though the offenders can pay directly through their debit card or cash on the spot, the machine system payment has not been implemented in Angul district yet.
Angul SDPO Aswini Kumar Sahoo, IIC Ramesh Chandra Bisoi and RI Susant Sahoo were present during the crackdown.
PNN