[swissknife]

Originally Posted by vibbs

Voted yes!!

I find this whole argument of the fines being too steep and not willing to harass public- that some state governments are using, to be quite amusing to put it mildly.

No sirs, the public is not being harassed.
You know what? It is not even mandatory to pay these fines.

All you need to do is - Follow the rules!!!

There seems to be two similar thread on the same topic. I am not sure if they could be merged. The mods may want to decide on that.


A fellow bhpian has something to say in this post (Traffic Police enforcing new Motor Vehicles Act from 15/08/2019 : How do you plan to adapt?). Though he was wearing his seat belt, he has been punished. There has been no evidence provided as well. Just following the rules may not guarantee anything.

[Samurai]

They started imposing the stiff fines in Karnataka this month. I have to say I didn't see much difference in Bangalore. I still see lots of folks riding without helmet on the wrong side, while talking on mobile. Yes, 3 visible violations in one glance. We can be fairly surely such folks don't carry any documents either. And there are plenty of folks committing at least one visible violence all the time. So I'd say not much change in Bangalore.

Last night I am back in Udupi. It's a MIRACLE...

First thing my mom (83 years) inquired was not whether her grandkids are doing fine. Instead she wanted to know whether my vehicles papers are in order. When I asked why, she said Udupi police are whipping up a storm by catching folks everywhere, and fining them to the fullest extent. The emission testing centers are working overtime and they can't keep up with the long lines since two weeks. So the first thing I did was check my PUC and found it expired by a month. When I showed up at the nearest emission testing center, there were 3 motorcycles ahead of me. The testing girl said the queue was much higher in the morning.

When I continued to drive 10kms to office, I kept a close watch on two-wheelers. Generally, 80% of the two-wheel riders don't wear helmet in this town. Today, I couldn't find a single helmet-less rider, all the way. I am pretty sure they have taken care of rest of the documentation too, considering the very high level of enforcement.

So it works, if the enforcement is good.

[rajvardhanraje]

Voted a resounding YES. The steep fines will definitely deter the offenders.

What I observed in Pune is that people follow the rules only when a policeman is in sight. Else, it's business as usual. Here people are aware of the potential places where traffic policemen usually stop. The same set of people will diligently follow the rules at big junctions where policemen are present. There is no reason why they can't follow the same discipline elsewhere.

The enforcement of these rules would be better done using more cameras at unmanned junctions. Only when people start getting challans on mass scales through sms for their violations, they will start following the rules. If you don't pay the fine, face the consequences. No room to bargain. As the proverb says, 'once bitten twice shy'. It is perfectly applicable in this case.

[Vasuki]

Of course YES.

I recently went to a helmet store. The guy there mentioned that there is a shortage in the availability of helmets (Low and Medium range) after the implementation of this Act.

I was really delighted to hear that. Anyway, all is not lost, it seems the states cannot reverse/reduce the fines for DUI and some other serious offenses.

I hope better sense prevails and the state governments do not reduce the fines.

[superbad]

Voted yes, higher fines are definitely a deterrent to breaking rules. Of course, the root cause is attitude, but changing that will take generations (if at all it happens), in the meantime but why not have stiff penalties also. People are concerned that the poor will be affected, however nobody is asking the poor to break the rules. In fact, I'm of the opinion that the states shouldn't decrease the fines. Why does the moron who drives on the wrong side of the road be let go of easily? Hit him where it hurts, ie his stomach.
Implementation is the key here. Instead of the traffic policemen arguing with the motorists, simply click the photos & issue e challan to the vehicle owner.

[Nav-i-gator]

A big yes!

Every 2-wheeler rider knows Helmet is absolute must. Earlier they would happily give away Rs 100 to maintain their "hairstyle", not now.

Every car driver know seat-belt is a must. Earlier they would happily give away Rs 100 to keep their shirt (and Ego) crisp. Not now.

Huge fines are a huge deterrent in India, where we take pride in breaking the rules. It has become a way of power projection: How powerful and connected you are is "proven" by openly flaunting the rules. While this will not change overnight, huge monetary dent definitely is working as of now.

[Bh.P]

Voted No.
It is not the quantum of fine that is the main deterrent. It is the probability of being fined that is the major deterrent.
With the new fines in place, the cops have also started more stringent enforcement drives which is causing panic in the public, and they are getting their PUCs and insurance done. The same impact would be there even if the the cops had done the same rigorous enforcement without the steep fines.
While increased fine is a good move, it is not a sufficient move. Has to be re-in-forced with strict enforcement, which I am afraid will not be for long.

[Thermodynamics]

NO

IMO, it would be the enforcement that matters than fines. For example, even before the fine hikes, it was enforcement in Kerala that made most maintain PUCC.

[Malyaj]

There needs to be some prioritization in enforcing the rules if the police can't tackle all offences at the same time. I see that they are going for low hanging fruits like riding without helmet or seat belt. Bigger traffic nuisance is created by wrong side driving, parking in narrow roads, over speeding tempos/cabs and dangerous driving. Since such offenders are difficult to catch, the cops are concentrating on bikers. While this makes for good headlines in terms of number of cases, it has changed little in terms of better traffic flow.

Voted Yes, but would like to see better prioritization.

[FrodoOfTheShire]

Originally Posted by PetrolRider

...in Bhubaneswar suddenly, everyone realized that majority of PUC centers operated without proper license from RTO (no one from authority ever cared to check them before). So, 90% of vehicles (with PUC from such fraud centers) were liable to pay fine of 5000/-.
Next morning, thousands of vehicles started queuing in front of those handful of legal centers making it an utter chaos and traffic cops were happy catching those vehicles who had PUC from invalid centers and collecting fines.

Are those unsuspecting law abiding citizens who are cheated by corrupt official and some fraud PUC centers liable to punishment? Legally yes, but?

Is that true?!

Whatever I read was that there were total 50 PUC centers in Bhubaneswar. All were offline. They were asked to register themselves with the RTO Vahaan portal so that they could issue online PUCs. Deadline for this registration was Sep 1st, but only 20 out of those 50 centres could register. Hence, vehicles that didn't have PUCs rushed to these 20 PUC centers after Sep 1st leading to long queues.

If what you say is true, then my car had its PUC on July this year and certificate shows its valid till Dec. Does it mean that this PUC certificate is now invalid, since I don't see that PUC vendor anymore.

If possible can you share some news report or article which has reported this. Or is it that you got this information from some acquaintance who was fined for having a "valid" PUC from one of those "invalid" centers?

[bluevolt]

It surely will. In Delhi, the deserted PUC centers are now witnessing huge rush of vehicles for getting a PUC certificate. People start queuing up as early as 6 am in Delhi these days to get a PUC.

[narayans80]

The answer is NO. The one line answer is exactly what Samurai posted

Originally Posted by Samurai

So it works, if the enforcement is good.

This enforcement is what was needed since before, which is still sad. The earlier fines would have done the job. After the initial hoopla dies down, am not sure how well the enforcement would be.

Signal jumps, wrong side driving all happen right under the nose of traffic cops, which are a huge menace in Madras. The only thing I've seen being implemented was/is drunk driving.

Besides what point are the fines achieving if you only follow on seeing a cop, and blatantly break it otherwise.

[PetrolRider]

Originally Posted by FrodoOfTheShire

Is that true?!

If possible can you share some news report or article which has reported this. Or is it that you got this information from some acquaintance who was fined for having a "valid" PUC from one of those "invalid" centers?

After that recent show down with police, the rules have been relaxed for 3 months, that includes the PUC. So, currently you are OK. but you may need to find out a legal PUC after 3 months when or rather if the things are back to action.

Quote from Indian Express states as below, full article is here.

“Only seven PUC centres registered themselves with Parivahan Sewa. However, 14 others are yet to get registration. Any certificate they issue before completing the registration will be outrightly considered invalid,” RTO-I in-charge PK Mohanty said.

On contrary, there are ZERO effect in Pune and there are zero effort from Pune traffic police on enforcement apart from nice quotes in twitter. So, can't agree more to the argument that, laws are as good as their enforcement.

[gkveda]

Voted "No"

I honestly think, it is not sufficient to JUST levy heavy fines. In addition to steep fine tarriff, there has to be physical punishment in order to bring the law and order to control and feel the pinch to the owner

I am not saying all below should be enforced for all scenarios. The degree can vary based on the offense. Example: Drink and drive - Jail etc

Examples:
1. Take Vehicle into Police custody for 1 month (Park on Road side only if parking is an issue)
2. Put the driver into Jail for 2-3 days
3. Driving License to be cancelled
4. Permit to be cancelled (For HTVs)
5. Registration Certificate to be cancelled (Say, for Emission Certificate)

Only Middle class people are afraid of Fines. Top Class people still are in "Don't care" condition. if we implement the above, then probably, this may fall into place in a more structured way.

[aghate]

Voted YES!
Hit it where it pains the most, on the wallet. Cannot imagine the number of times I have been honked at, stared for following rules in Pune. Heck even my Mom used to tell me to jump the light as most of the people were doing it, she said I was a fool to not do what most others were doing. Classic case of a clever person caught amidst stupid people where the clever one looks stupid as others are on one side. Anyway, I used to stand my ground and not budge. The amount of times that I am scared to slow down in a reasonable amount of time when the Traffic light is Yellow is infinite.

People don't realize it is very easy to drive within rules. I have been driving in UK for 1.5 years now and trust me not once did I have any mental fatigue from long journeys. It is not the physical strain of doing long distances it is the mental stress that gets you. If you know everyone is following rules and yourself as well, it is much easier and quicker way to reach your destination. The commute becomes easier with following rules. Hope people get that once we settle in and start abiding by the rules, not for the huge fine but the thought that life is easier this way.

It is another story that the Media has done its every bit to portray good things in a bad way by focusing more on the fines and not on educating people to follow the rules. Not telling people on how it is easier to follow rules than paying fines. How hard can it be for a person to pay for a decent helmet that costs around INR 1,000/-? Get a PUC that costs 30 bucks? A third party insurance that costs lesser than the monthly groceries? If an individual can afford a Motorbike costing INR 40k be it via EMIs they certainly can't be categorized as poor and being the sufferer of these fines.

Paying fines is not a 'mandate', follow traffic rules and easily avoid them. Easy!