On September 1, the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act 2019 came into effect. It includes strict penalties for violation of traffic rules. A huge amount has been charged from commuters for speed limit in the last 1 and a half months which include Rs 23,000 challan for scooty, Rs 35,000 challan for motorbike, Rs 59,000 challan for tractor including Rs 6.5 lakh challan of a truck driver in Odisha.
As a result, commuters have become extra cautious while driving and accept that maintaining speed limit is important for safety. The fear of e-challan is in the air as you do not know the penalty amount instantly and traffic police may seize your documents.
All this has been done to combat the worse situation of violation of traffic rules by the public but what happens when police or MCD or government body themselves break the laws or become a hurdle in systematic follow of laws?
Yes, I am talking about the discrepancies in the speed limit that make driving a nightmare in Delhi/NCR region. While driving from INA to Sarai Kale Khan via Barapullah, you can see multiple boards with different speed limits at different junctures. It is 30km/h at a point and 65km/h at other and the third one says 20km/h. This act from the government’s side is creating confusion in the commuter’s mind regarding the speed limit.
Similarly, on the Panchsheel Park stretch of Outer Ring Road, the speed limit is 30km/h (as decided by National Green Tribunal) but as soon as you go down the Chirag Dilli flyover, the speed limit mentioned in 40 km/h. After that, if you take left, the speed limit is set to 50 km/h. Next at Pamposh Enclave, it drops again to 40km/h.
And the most interesting part is the rule-makers i.e. the traffic police are imposing challan ahead on the same roads. This challan imposing thing seems to be a golden opportunity for the government to collect money from common people. Another discrepancy case by MCD is on the road going from Delhi to Gurugram.
The juncture says speed limit 70 km/h but in Delhi, the speed limit is 60 km/h. Although the MCD was asked to rectify the error but no action was taken and to add icing on the cake, there are traffic police standing ahead to impose challan for those exceeding speed limits.
Is it some speed limit game going on or what? The different speed limit on different junctures results in breaking of traffic rules which end up paying penalties for commuters.
This is a mistake of MCD and the common man is paying for it. Don’t you think, in a country where a common man is forced to pay penalties for not paying the bills on time, he is liable to get some interest in this blunder done by government bodies? Strict rules to impose challan have been introduced but what about the rules of returning challan amount in case, it’s paid by some mistake.
Instead of correcting their mistakes, government or MCD or the police are leaving no corners to loot the public’s hard-earned money. Thousands of unethical challans are happening daily and no one is held responsible for that. No one knows where this huge amount is going. We, the people of India are quite cooperative and happy in giving our hard-earned money to the unethical robbers as per their convenience.
Is this the India our forefathers hoped at the time of independence??