Since the amendment of the Motor Vehicles Act, which has paved the way for more enhanced penalties on traffic offences, social media has been abuzz with citizens voicing their angst against the hefty fines. However, the worst sufferer from the lot has reportedly come out to be a truck driver who was fined Rs 86,500 for traffic rule violation in Odisha’s Sambalpur district.

Rs 86,500 Fined

On September 3, a truck driver named Ashok Jadav was fined Rs 86,500 for several traffic rule violations in Odisha. On Saturday evening, the picture of the challan went viral on social media. 

Read I Alert netizen complains to Mumbai Police about vehicle violating number plate rules, police acts immediately

According to Sambalpur's Regional Transport Officer Lalit Mohan Behera, Jadav was penalised for allowing an unauthorized person to drive (Rs 5,000), driving without a license (Rs 5,000), overloading with an excess of 18 tonnes (Rs 56,000), carrying over dimension projections (Rs 20,000) and general offence (Rs 500).

The truck was owned by Nagaland based private company BLA Infrastructure Private Limited and loaded with a JCB machine. It was coming from Talcher, intending to go towards Chhattisgarh when it was intercepted by officials in Sambalpur, Odisha. After negotiating with the authorities for more than 5 hours, the driver paid a fine of Rs 70,000. 

Read I Stringent traffic rules aim at curbing road accidents: Gadkari

Amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act 

The amendments were implemented on September 1, 2019, which aim to tighten road traffic regulations and impose a stricter fine for violations in an attempt to improve road safety and encourage traffic discipline.

Read I Traffic fines: Here are all the new penalties under Motor Vehicles Act

The amendments introduced penalties for traffic rule violations which were not penalized until now. This included, not providing a way for emergency vehicles, overloading of passengers and offences by juveniles. Along with this, the fines for a variety of other traffic rule violations have been increased multi-fold. This includes drunken driving, over speeding, driving without a license, helmets and seat belts, amongst others. 

Read I Traffic fine debate: How many of these bizarre road rules do you know?

Odisha is among the few states which started implementing the amended Motor Vehicles Act from September 1 when it came into force. The state has grossed the highest penalty in the country under the amended Act in the first four days of its implementation by collecting over Rs 88 lakh.

Read I​​​​​​​ Motor Vehicles Act: These road violation penalties apply from Sep 1​​​​​​​