Pune NGO demands compounding notification to reduce road accident fatalities in Maharashtra

Pune, June 9, 2020: Parisar a non-profit organization working on road safety urges Transport Minister to issue compounding notification under section 200 of Motor Vehicles Act and set fines for traffic violations. Road Crashes kill around 1,50,000 people every year (400 every day). Maharashtra alone records 12,565 road fatalities in year 2019.

Right after passing of Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, Parisar sent a letter to Chief Minister in September 2019 to issue notification of compoundable Offences under Section 200 of the Amended Motor Vehicles Act. Representatives of Parisar organization met Transport Minister in the month of January and shared an urgency to issue compounding notification and submitted petition of demands. In order to follow on this matter, Parisar again wrote a letter to make same request and act upon it at earliest.

“It has been 10 months since Motor Vehicles Amendment Act was passed by The Parliament. Other states have already issued the compounding notification. Then why Maharashtra, where there are large number of people dying on the road every day, is dilly-dally” asks Sandeep Gaikwad, Advocacy Coordinator, Parisar.

Compoundable offences are those offences where, the violators and designated officer, enter into a compromise, and agrees to have the charges dropped against the accused and settle the matter on the spot by levying fines. If traffic offences are not compounded, Police will have to issue court summons. Given the number of violations, this will lead to a tremendous backlog in Courts and is not practical. Some key violations such as for helmets require a fresh notification.

According to Section 200 of the new Motor Vehicles Act, States are empowered to prescribe penalties for traffic violations under the Motor Vehicles Act. A notification highlights a list of offences that allow an offender to pay the fine on the spot to the designated police officer at the scene. Fines can be set less than the maximum which is prescribed in the Act.

Ranjit Gadgil, Program Director, Parisar said “All States are already under strict orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court appointed Committee on Road Safety and some actions have already been taken by the Government to address the issue of road safety. We hope that Maharashtra Government is aware of the importance of issuing compounding notification and will not make further delay to act upon it.”