Odisha truck driver fined Rs 86,500; highest ever under Motor Vehicles Act

New Delhi, Sep 09: A truck driver from Odisha has been slapped a fine of Rs 86,000 , perhaps the highest ever since the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act came into effect on September 1.

Truck driver Ashok Jadav was fined on September 3 but the picture of the challan went viral on social media on Saturday evening.

Reportedly, Ashok was fined for allowing an unauthorised person to drive (Rs 5,000), driving without a licence (Rs 5,000), overloading (Rs 56,000), carrying over dimension projections (Rs 20,000) and a general offence (Rs 500).

The truck belonging to a Nagaland-based company BLA Infrastructure Private Limited was loaded with a JCB machine. It was intending to go towards Chhattisgarh when it was intercepted by officials in Sambalpur, Odisha.

After negotiating with the authorities for more than 5 hours, the driver paid a fine of Rs 70,000.

Odisha which implemented the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 for traffic violations on September 1 has collected the highest amount of fine amounting to Rs 88.90 lakh in just four days.

Under the law, Rs 10,000 fine would be levied for not giving way to emergency vehicles and for driving despite disqualification. Aggregators violating driving licence norms will be fined up to Rs 1 lakh.

The bill includes penalties in the range of Rs 1,000- 2,000 for over-speeding.

Driving without insurance will be punishable with Rs 2,000 fine, while driving without helmets will attract Rs 1,000 penalty and three-month suspension of licence.

Also, the guardian/owner will be deemed guilty in case of road offence by juveniles, while registration of the vehicle will be cancelled.

As per the new provisions, "guardian/owner shall be deemed to be guilty and there will be a penalty of Rs 25,000 with three years imprisonment and cancellation of registration of the Motor Vehicle".

Traffic violations would now attract a penalty of Rs 500 in place of Rs 100 earlier, while disobedience of orders of authorities will attract a minimum penalty of Rs 2,000 in place of Rs 500 earlier.

Penalty for unauthorised use of vehicles without licence has been proposed at Rs 5,000 while those driving without licence will have to shell out the same amount and those found driving despite disqualification would be fined Rs 10,000.

Penalty for dangerous driving would be increased to Rs 5,000 from Rs 1,000, while drunken driving under the proposed new law would attract a fine of Rs 10,000.