Bhawanipatna: Though the state government announced a respite of three months in the implementation of the amended Motor Vehicles (MV) Act keeping in mind the huge rush at RTO offices and growing anxiety among the public over December 1 deadline, checking of traffic rule violation which comes under road safety provisions has not been relaxed.
Keeping this on mind Bhawanipatna police have imposed steep penalties on law-breakers as per the amended Motor Vehicles (MV) Act 2019.
According to police, police personnel penalised 20 persons and imposed Rs 29, 000 fines on them till December 4. Notably, the state commerce and transport minister Padmanabha Behera announced a relaxation in MV Act implementation in the Assembly after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik approved it for the second time.
“There will be strict enforcement for life-threatening actions (both the driver and the road using public) like drunken driving, over-speeding, driving against flow of traffic, using mobile while driving, dangerous driving, triple riding on two-wheelers, overloading, jumping red light, not wearing helmet and seat belt. Among others,” said Behera.
The transport minister said in case any motorist is found in contravention of any of the above road safety provisions, the documents also will be checked. “The extension is being given for the last time and no further extension will be granted,” Behera had clarified.
Amid growing public discontent over stringent enforcement of the new traffic law, the Chief Minister had September 9 announced relaxation for three months.
Sources said, the town police have started checking procedures for the traffic rule violators from December 2. On the first day of the checking, police personnel had collected Rs 9000 from nine traffic violators.
The violators were given money receipts for the penalty amount and were asked to pay the fine within seven days at the police station or within 13 days at the RTO office. The penalty can be paid directly through their debit card or in cash on the spot, said Bhawanipatna town police station IIC Basudev Chatria.
According to Chhatria, the checking system will continue at different places in the city in particular time intervals. No traffic violators will be exempted except for who would not have cleared their paper works related to their vehicles as per the relaxation of the new traffic rules.