More Fines, Lesser Accidents On Odisha Roads After New Motor Vehicles Act

Bhubaneswar: The hefty amount collected by the Odisha government has so far as fine for violation of traffic norms under the new amended Motor Vehicle Amendment (MVA) Act 2019, also means a reduction in the accident rate and death due to accident rate. Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera on Thursday told the Odisha Assembly that the state government had  collected close to Rs 39 crore as fine between September 1, 2019 and January 31 this year.

He was replying to a written question of a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA.

Commensurately, the accident rate for the same period (barring January 2020) is also quite encouraging and speaks for the success of MVA. The number of accidents in December 2019 came down drastically to 430 from 1081 in the same period in 2018; and there were 430 deaths due to accidents as compared to 588 in the same period. Before that, in September 2018, there were 844 accidents and 367 deaths, whereas in the same period in 2019, 702 accidents and 323 deaths.

The Minister also informed that 4,13,994 driving license applications had been received till January 31 after the new MVA Act came into effect. So far, licenses have been issued to 2,87,932 applicants.

Replying to another question, Behera said a total of 28,63,648 pollution under control certificates were issued to vehicles between September 2019 and February 15 this year, while fitness certificates were issued to 13,90,48 vehicles during the same period.