Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Monday announced a relaxation on traffic enforcement for a period of three months following public outrage over heavy fine under amended Motor Vehicle Act.
Now, the commuters have additional three months time in hand to get their vehicle documents ready.
The Chief Minister directed the enforcement agencies not to aggressively go on an overdrive. He asked to counsel and handhold the public to facilitate compliance with the amended provisions of the Act.
Patnaik asked the Transport Department to augment public services, strengthen the facilitation centres, open extra counters, conduct camps in public institutions to enable the motor vehicle users to update their compliance status.
This process will continue over the next 3 months so that adequate time is made available to the public to ensure compliance, massive road safety awareness campaign will be carried out to sensitise public on the new norms. The Chief Minister also made an appeal to all motor vehicle users to obey traffic rules and desist from dangerous driving which will endanger their lives and that of others. The state Commerce and Transport Minister, Padmanabh Behera, also addressed the issue and hinted at reducing the fine amount. A decision to this effect will be taken after a review meeting, Tuesday, Behera said. “We realise that the fine amounts are too high. Though we cannot change the Act as it has been introduced by the Centre, we might change some of the provisions offering a measure of relaxation to the public,”
The widespread public resentment over hefty fines caught the attention of the government following a serious clash between the police and public at Rajmahal square here Saturday. The simmering public anger and frustration over the collection of heavy amounts as fines without giving enough time was responsible for the face-off that left several people and cops injured.
Enraged commuters at the spot were also seen demanding documents from police and BMC staff at the spot. The situation worsened after the protestors allegedly spotted a beer can inside the PCR van standing there. Meanwhile, the Commissionerate Police charged two policemen recently who were caught driving without helmets and fined them with `1000 each. Vigilante onlookers Monday posted another video of a lady cop driving a scooter on a city flyover without wearing a helmet.