Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Sep 21: The state government, after lot of dilly-dallying, is decided to go for downward revision for a few traffic offences. A hint about this came at the end of a meeting chaired by transport minister Laxman Savadi, on Friday, September 20. A revised list of fines is expected to be officially announced by Saturday evening, but fine for offences like drunk driving are likely to be retained at the current level.

Initially, there was consensus on across the table review of all the traffic fines. It has since been decided to bring down the fines for all other traffic offences other than drunk driving. The transport officials, who have got directions in this regard, are busy preparing a revised list.

The cut in fines may range from 20 to 80 percent. The proposal that will probably be put forth by the transport department to the government by Saturday afternoon is expected to be cleared by the transport minister by today evening. The department sources expect official notification to come out in two to three days’ time.

The law department has opined that indirectly the state has the discretion to vary the fines although as per the rules the state has not been vested with the power to bring down the fines. A section of experts also say that the state can bring down fine only in case of not more than five offences. A transport department official said that the existing notification announcing modification to Motor Vehicles Act would be withdrawn and a fresh notification announcing revised fines would be issued.

While some of the fines may be on par with the ones charged by Gujarat, some may others be quite different, officials said.