Bhubaneswar (SunstarTV Bureau): The State Transport Authority (STA) asked the Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) to suspend the driving license of the traffic violators for a minimum period of three months.
Sanjeeb Panda, the STA Transport Commissioner-Cum-Chairman wrote a letter to the RTOs to take stringent action against the road safety violators. The observations of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety he said that under Section 19 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1968 read with Rule 21 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, the driving license of the traffic guideline violators should be suspended for at least three consecutive months.
The following are the offences for which the driving license must be suspended:
- Driving at a speed exceeding the specified limit which would also include the red light jumping
- Carrying overload in goods carriage and carrying passengers in goods carriages.
- Driving vehicle under the influence of alcohol.
- Using mobile phone while driving.
The Supreme Court Committee has directed to submit a quarterly report on enforcement for review at their level. While analyzing the performance of RTOs, for January to March, 2021 and April to June 2021, it is observed that only 39% (27,264) and 61% (10,724) of DLs of the offending drivers were suspended in the SARATHI database respectively.
The letter further stated the road accident and fatality data received from the Crime Branch, indicates that over speeding is one of the major reasons of the road accidents and fatalities. During 2020, 72% of the road accidents were caused due to over speeding resulting into 73% of total fatalities.
