[Ithaca]

Originally Posted by praveen789

The title of the article should have been Parliament clears the Bill that will change the way India bribes. Before the moral police start suggesting that we should not give bribes, let me remind that we are talking about losers who are not willing to follow the rules in the first place. How can we expect them to pay the full fine if they are given an option to get away by paying 10% of it?
Also, the authorities need to start accepting video evidence provided by citizens for any violations detected and directly charge the fine online to the offender.

From what I have heard about the Mumbai Traffic police fines, photographic evidence of number plates of vehicles parked in the no-parking area are taken and uploaded to the Vaahan site.
No formal transaction of money happens. Sometimes the cops do troll the area and cut challans. But as of now since the fining procedure is still new, they are being careful to not go the short cut route - yet.
Yes this can become a source for corruption but we have to hope for the best and hope our citizen learn their lessons the hard / punitive way.

[sibot]

All in all I'd say it's a good move. But what is alarming is the charge for dangerous driving, which in my opinion is the most arbitrary penalty levied on drivers. Keeping such a steep fine for dangerous driving, the cops are very likely to arbitrarily attach the charge along with jumping of red light because in their "opinion" it was a dangerous thing to do. This would just lead to harassment. These fines should be based on objective metrics and not something subjective that rash driving is.

[Sherlocked]

The only way to stop bribes is to have a system that enables challan without the involvement of any officer on field. The system should be such that the offence gets recorded on camera and the challan is sent to your home. If you don't pay in time then a strict penalty with every day the fine is not paid after the due date. If you still don't pay then a summon from Court.

We have a system like this on a particular road in Jaipur. Although it's only for overspending but it has worked so far and one could observe that people tend to remain within the speed limit.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by shamanth

Looks like file is corrupted, not able to open. Could you upload it again ?

Here you go, link to download the file:

http://164.100.47.4/BillsTexts/LSBil...C_2019_Eng.pdf

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

The only way to stop bribes is to have a system that enables challan without the involvement of any officer on field. The system should be such that the offence gets recorded on camera and the challan is sent to your home. If you don't pay in time then a strict penalty with every day the fine is not paid after the due date. If you still don't pay then a summon from Court.

We have a system like this on a particular road in Jaipur. Although it's only for overspending but it has worked so far and one could observe that people tend to remain within the speed limit.

The actual and only way to stop bribes is for people to follow rules. Its quite intriguing that people complain a lot all the time about bribes taken (and given!) by the traffic police in our country. Its very conveniently forgotten that the bribe comes into picture only when there is a traffic offense committed. The whole process starts when people don't follow a rule and are caught by the police.

So the fix really is discipline in the general public & society. Sense of responsibility. Something most of us humans inherently lack off late.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

Here you go, link to download the file:

http://164.100.47.4/BillsTexts/LSBil...C_2019_Eng.pdf

And the link to India Motor Vehicles Act 1988 :

https://indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/1...3/A1988-59.pdf

[kozhissery]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Its very conveniently forgotten that the bribe comes into picture only when there is a traffic offense committed. The whole process starts when people don't follow a rule and are caught by the police.

I beg to differ from this statement. In Kerala I've got a couple of Speed tickets which I don't disagree (even though every time the speed was under 5KMS variance). But I would disagree where they try to milk you saying the rules that were not broken.

For example, I was once charged by police (in Srinagar) for not breaking any rules. A police just flagged me to stop asked me to show the license, he just took it away and asked me to come to police station. When confronted, he said you had stopped on the road (which I did because he flagged me to stop). Then sense prevailed, that somewhere I had read such things can happen where police wants some pocket money. Just gave him Rs.100/- and got the license back.
Another incident happened to my cousin who was flagged to stop and charged. When asked why, he said they have target and that he'll charge under "wrong side parking" as that gets the cheapest fine.

If everything gets automated/video graphed/photographed then I'm for it else you'll have to grease the "Authority". Luckily such bribes are almost non-existent in Kerala. Every time I was stopped by Police in Kerala as part of checking have always been charge-free as all the documents/seat belts/helmets are in place.

[Sherlocked]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

The actual and only way to stop bribes is for people to follow rules. Its quite intriguing that people complain a lot all the time about bribes taken (and given!) by the traffic police in our country. Its very conveniently forgotten that the bribe comes into picture only when there is a traffic offense committed. The whole process starts when people don't follow a rule and are caught by the police.

So the fix really is discipline in the general public & society. Sense of responsibility. Something most of us humans inherently lack off late.

Majority of the people will follow rules only if it's forced upon them. The only way, is to have a strict system of fines and penalty, which is what we have. A loophole of this are the bribes given/taken.

The country to which you and I belong has people from varied societies and upbringings. What might be regarded an act of discipline to me or you might not be same to the eye of some other guy. People in majority lacks moral ethics here and responsibilities can't be infused into them in a year or two. It takes decades. Till then, strict penalities are the only way to go. Of course, the implementation also needs to be flawless.

[R2D2]

I am glad to see enhanced penalties for road offences but the one that I most appreciate is the Good Samaritan clause.

About bribes - we educated road users need to blame ourselves for giving in to the demand for a bribe instead of choosing to:

a) Obey rules so we don't get hauled up or ticketed
b) Pay the Govt. rather than an under-the-table offer to a law enforcement individual just to be let off easy.

If I inadvertently break a traffic rule and choose to get away by bribing a cop it is MY fault on both counts. For e.g. if I were to drink and drive and were hauled up, TBH I deserve to be fined for putting my life and that of others, including passengers and other road users, at risk. I would treat it as a lesson learned and would strive never to be a repeat offender thereafter.

I obey traffic rules and will never bribe a traffic cop. It is the way *I* prefer to be.

[autobahnjpr]

Originally Posted by shamanth

Looks like file is corrupted, not able to open. Could you upload it again ?

Not sure why download is a problem.

You can also download from the link


http://164.100.47.4/BillsTexts/LSBil...C_2019_Eng.pdf

[JS Kwt]

Hope these amendments will increase the SAFETY on our roads rather than increasing the Corruption and bribes !

Think the major hike in fines for traffic violations - part of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019 - will go a long way in making our roads safer?

https://t.co/w18QZKldiv

[mustangvins]

From what i read in the newspapers, the bill passed by the Rajya Sabha has some minor changes compared to the one passed by the Lok Sabha. So it needs to go back to the Lok Sabha again where these amendments need to be passed again but that looks more like a procedural formality. Does anyone know what these minor differences are between the two versions?

Also, would this bill facilitate uniform road tax across the nation? I think that's the other key reform we need. It has provisions for having a single national database for vehicle registrations and licenses. Likewise, it would have made more sense if vehicle registration charges were also made uniform.

[tj123]

It is good that fines have been increased to improve compliance, but what about the other aspects like road design, signage, potholes, humps and all kind of road impediments which are causing accidents and deaths. Will the government work on those aspect as-well ?? Just penalizing one stake holder is not the right approach.

[zaveed]

Originally Posted by tj123

.. what about the other aspects like road design, signage, potholes, humps and all kind of road impediments which are causing accidents and deaths. Will the government work on those aspect as-well ?? Just penalizing one stake holder is not the right approach.

All the above that you are asking requires the contractors and govt officials to be on the same page and work, which is tough because Govt wants to reduce spend and the contractors want to save as much as they can. No one cares about the quality of the work

Milking people who buy vehicles is the ONLY agenda. Rest all is "Chalta hai"

[AlphaKilo]

In general I welcome this move but certain fines seem very illogical to me. For example:

1- Drunken driving does not get a suspension of licence or a jail whereas riding without helmet will get the licence suspended!

2- Sections 177, 177A, 178, 179 --> is not well defined as to what is a general violation, rules of road regulation violation, disobeying authorities, travelling without ticket --> good source of Bribe and illegal fines for authorities to fill up their month end quota.

3- What about High beam usage? Unauthorised modifications such as party flags(flag poles) or those huge scaffoldings that a politician's innova or SUVs have at front and back? Lane discipline?

No changes have been made in the way licences are issued, no stringent test procedures introduced, no proper driving education --> All are the root cause for the problems we are already facing. why is nothing done to address those? Instead, only fines are increased and the people are being milked to the last drop?