Mangaluru, Apr 26: Office bearers and members of Dakshina Kannada district Karmika Parishad held a protest in front of the deputy commissioner's office here on Saturday, against the Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2014 proposed by the NDA government, which is slated to be tabled in the next session of the Lok Sabha.
Addressing the protestors, president of the Karmika Parishad Ivan D'Souza said that the Centre wanted to repeal the Indian Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and implement a new bill which would take away the livelihood of several labourers such as privately-owned taxi drivers, auto-rickshaw drivers and bus drivers. The ones currently running private driving schools will not be allowed to run their businesses if the new bill is passed. The same will be the fate of private garage owners and mechanics employed there, he said, adding that the bill was brought merely for the benefit of multinational and corporate companies.
Urging the Centre to withdraw the bill, Mr D'Souza said that a person had to shell out Rs 5,000 while applying for a driving licence under the new proposed bill, while also re-taking driving test at the time of renewing the licence. The new bill also demands that a driving instructor should own a minimum of 15 acres of land to run a driving school, and also requires a driving driving track to have the same requirements, he said, adding that the new bill, if implemented, would leave several transport operators without any means of income.
Speaking on th occasion, president of Kanara Bus Owners' Association K Rajavarma Ballal said that the new Road Transport bill would affect the local transport operators such as bus owners and taxi owners as well as drivers if it was passed. Instead of repealing the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988, the central government could have made necessary amendments to the existing Act as required.
All the legal fines for traffic offences have been increased, while the legal maximum punishment for committing a road accident has been increased to seven years' in jail, which is a deterrent to transport operators such as drivers who depend on it for their livelihood, he said, stressing that the central government should concentrate on improving the existing network of roads in the country before tabling the bill.
He opined that the number of traffic problems would increase instead of decreasing if the new bill was implemented. Corporator Praveenchandra Alva, NSUI president Ashith Pereira, DK youth Congress president Mithun Rai and others were present.
Comments
Add new comment