The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed a bill to tighten road traffic regulations such as issuance of driving licence and imposed stricter penalties for violations in an attempt to improve road safety.

The Upper House passed the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019 with 108 votes in favour and 13 against it, with three amendments moved by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari. Here's an overview of the amended bill for changing Motor Vehicle law.

It proposes ₹10,000 fine for not giving way to emergency vehicles and ₹10,000 for driving despite disqualification. Aggregators violating driving licences will be fined up to ₹1 lakh.

The proposals are based on the recommendations of transport ministers from 18 states, which were vetted by a standing committee of Parliament.

The bill includes penalties in the range of ₹1,000- ₹2,000 for over-speeding in an LMV and medium passenger vehicle respectively.

The penalty for speeding has been increased to ₹5,000 as against ₹500 that was levied earlier.

Driving without insurance will be punishable with ₹2,000 fine, while driving without helmets will attract ₹1,000 penalty and 3-month suspension of licence. The penalty earlier was ₹1,000 and ₹100 respectively.

Also, the guardian/owner will be deemed guilty in case of road offence by juveniles.

As per the new provisions, "guardian/owner shall be deemed to be guilty and there will be a penalty of ₹25,000 with three years imprisonment and cancellation of registration of the Motor Vehicle".

Drunken driving will not attract penalty to the tune of ₹10,000 as against ₹2,000 earlier.

Traffic violations would now attract a penalty of ₹500 in place of ₹100 earlier, while disobedience of orders of authorities will attract a minimum penalty of ₹2,000 in place of ₹500 earlier.

Penalty for unauthorised use of vehicles without licence has been proposed at ₹5,000 while those driving without licence will have to shell out the same amount and those found driving despite disqualification would be fined ₹10,000.

Penalty for dangerous driving would be increased to ₹5,000 from ₹1,000, while drunken driving under the proposed new law would attract a fine of ₹10,000.

"If aggregators are found violating lincensing conditions, they will be charged a sum of up to ₹1 lakh" while overloading of vehicles would attract a penalty of ₹20,000.

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