MUMBAI: Driving on the wrong side of the road, lane cutting or overtaking may no longer end with a simple payment of fine. The Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, recently notified by the state government with a few tweaks, has made these offences non-compoundable, which means that the offenders may have to appear before court. Law enforcement officers are not too happy with this modification as it would increase their workload tremendously.
Previously, offences such as wrong side driving, lane cutting etc., attracted a paltry fine of Rs 200. "Sending an offender to court should be limited to serious offences such as drunk driving. It's impractical to do so for comparatively petty offences. We are in the process of proposing to the Central Government to let petty offences remain compoundable, which means that the offender can pay a fine and the matter is settled," said an IPS officer.
An official from the state transport commissioner's office, however, said that taking offenders to court for these offences was necessary given the number of road crashes and constant complaints of wrong side driving and lane cutting.
Activists are concerned how this would work given that courts are already piled up with pending cases. "The problem of wrong-side driving has reached massive proportions in Mumbai and violent reprisals are common if a motorist tries to confront the offender. There is an urgent need to carry out enforcement drives and clamp down on offenders on a large scale at well-identified locations, along with an additional force augmenting the traffic department," said activist and communications professional Naraayan Kannan.
Trupti Amritwar, CEO of the non-profit, Mumbai Environment and Social Network, said that sending offenders to court may sound stringent but may not prove to be a deterrent. "Hiking fines for lane cutting and making offenders pay penalties on the spot would work better," she added.
Lane cutting is common on arterial roads such as SV Road, LBS Marg or Western and Eastern Express highways. Motorists say wrong side driving has grown rampant under Lalbaug flyover, on JVLR after the Larsen & Toubro flyover, P D'Mello Road, Mankhurd, Govandi, Sakinaka and even on highways. Over 47500 motorists were challaned for driving in the wrong direction between January and August 2021, which is more than those challaned throughout 2020 (around 31000 challans). But only 14% offenders paid up the fines this year.
Another significant modification in the Amendment Act is that the minimum fines for traffic offences is now Rs 500 (from the previous Rs 200) for a first-time offender and at least Rs 1500 for a second-time offender.
