The Union law ministry is considering opposing transport minister Nitin Gadkari’s proposal to create a national authority for road safety and regulation of motor vehicles through an executive order.
The Union law ministry is considering opposing transport minister Nitin Gadkari’s proposal to create a national authority for road safety and regulation of motor vehicles through an executive order.
Raising an objection to circumventing procedure in the Parliament, the law ministry recommended the enactment of the Road Transport and Safety Bill 2014.
Under the draft bill, which is yet to be tabled in the Parliament, it has proposed the Motor Vehicle Regulation and Road Safety Authority of India, which will be an independent agency with four-eight members. This will have powers to recall motor vehicles in case of any deviation from norms.
The law ministry has returned the file to the transport ministry with after saying that this authority cannot be created through an executive order.
“The transport authority should wait till the bill becomes law. The State Transport Authority in each State and the National Transport Authority at Centre are already existing under the Motor Vehicles Act. They discharge the similar functions and the rights of these statutory authorities should not be taken away,” a senior officer from law ministry told dna.
“Not only this, a huge amount of expenditure would incur for the function of this new authority,” he also said.
When contacted, the transport ministry source said “the government is concerned over the issue and creation of this body is essential in the light of road accidents which has increased manifold in past few years.”
Referring to the Rakesh Mohan committee’s recommendations on road safety, a transport ministry official said: “A detailed discussion was held between the two ministries. The nodal agency will be given the power within the parameter of the law. It will neither encroach into the jurisdiction of any other authority nor take away their power.”
“Rule making power will not be given to the new authority. The authority will suggest the government on various issue relating to the road safety,” the officer said.
Soon after the Narendra Modi government was formed in May last year, its Union rural development minister, Gopinath Munde lost his life in a car crash in Delhi.
After the incident, Gadkari had taken initiatives to redraft the UPA government’s National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board Bill at par with the best practices of six advanced countries— the US, the UK, Canada, Singapore, Japan and Germany.
The proposed road safety authority will suggest construction, design, maintenance and use of motor vehicles and roads as a major component, besides monitoring the enforcement of fuel efficiency norms.
It would also regulate, recommend and monitor issues related to the manufacture, maintenance, registration, licensing and working of drivers, maintenance and standards of road safety, control of traffic, public-private partnership schemes and promotion of new technologies.
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