April 16th MV Act implementation date as per SC committee

Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho on Tuesday said that the intervening period between April 16th – the date of notification and May 1 – date of implementation would be utilised by the Transport Department to carry out awareness programmes across the State.

He said that the awareness will be done before  the new MV Act is implemented. He said that the  new MV Act  has steep fines and it will be enforced. The State government will issue a corrigendum in the gazette stating that the new MV Act will be implemented from May 1 and not from April 16. 

The new MV act was initially notified to be implemented from April 16, because the government had to give a date to the Supreme Court-appointed safety committee with judges of Supreme Court and High Courts as members of the committee. The committee had pulled the state up for the non-implementation of the new MV Act, he admitted.

The opposition Congress has criticised the MV Act saying that the fines are too high and it is the poor which will be affected if the MV Act is imposed.