Odisha Govt May Ask Violators Of Traffic Rules To Do Community Service

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government may ask the violators of Motor Vehicles Act to do community service apart from imposing penalty.

The Supreme Court committee on road safety, in a letter to the state government, has asked to punish the offenders of traffic rules by engaging them in community service as per the provisions of the Act. The state has assured of exploring the nature of community service, according to a TOI report.

At present, the government is penalising the offenders of the Motor Vehicles Act and suspending their driving licence. Besides imposing fine, it may assign them duty at traffic posts to help police, Transport department sources said.

Chairman of the Supreme Court committee Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre was highly critical of the state government’s failure in bringing down fatalities due to road accidents. “Fatalities owing to road accidents have consistently increased from 2014 to 2019. Deaths in January-September 2020 came down by 22% primarily due to lockdown. The measures taken by the state government to check the fatality rate over the past few years did not seem to have any visible impact,” the letter read.