Good news for all daily commuters by their vehicles and also for the other vehicle owners. The transport ministry has proposed allowing the drivers and other vehicle owners to carry their important documents while driving in a hard copy or as a soft copy. The licences and other documents such as registration and insurance papers in soft copy will be considered valid for verification purposes by the police.
The application of the licence can be submitted to any of the RTOs of the state and the renewal period of the licence has also been increased from present 30 days norms to one year . This will curtail the harassment of the citizen. The driver with expired licence will not be allowed to drive.
The ministry in its Cabinet proposal for amending the Motor Vehicles Act, has proposed elaborate reforms to make public interface with transport departments and government agencies smoother. The proposed changes are likely to come up during the monsoon session. Among them also a proposal to make wearing of helmets mandatory for children over four years.
Along with the above conditions the whole system of application for licence and renewal will be online resulting less interface with the RTOs and law enforcement agencies to avoid corruption.
According to the report, While RTOs will give smart chip-based driving licences and registration cards, but drivers will have the freedom to carry them or copies in hard form or soft copies since the entire proposal is based on the premise that personnel of law enforcing agencies will have hand-held devices to check the genuineness of the documents and to access past offences by the driver or the owner.
Hoever the road safety experts denies to do away with the carrying of the original licence. increase in penalties including fine, jail, cancellation of driving licence and impounding of vehicles has been included in the Cabinet note, the focus is on refresher training for drivers in most cases.
The focus of the amendments is to make services people friendly and also to improve road safety provisions.
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