Suspend licence of errant drivers: Centre

In a bid to reduce the increasing number of road accidents, the Centre has directed the states to suspend the driving licence of an offender for at least three months for breaking traffic rules, including over-speeding, signal-jumping, overloading and using mobile phones while driving.

At the National Road Safety Council meeting held here on Tuesday, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, told the transport ministers of several states, including Karnataka, to initiate stern action against traffic rule violators.

Directing the states to tighten the procedure for issuing a permanent driving licence, the minister said the driving licence of an errant driver could be suspended under Section 19 of the Motor Vehicle Act and Rule 21 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules.

He asked the states to establish sensor-based computerised driving tracks in a time-bound manner in order to eliminate human intervention while issuing a permanent driving licence.

Gadkari instructed the states to identify black spots on state highways and rectify them expeditiously, promising Central funds for taking up repair works. He said “10% of the Central Road Fund (CRF) earmarked for road safety could be used for the purpose”.

The total collection under CRF more than doubled to about Rs 70,000 crore last fiscal, the government had said.

So far, 789 black spots have been identified on the national highways based on the fatalities, which occurred between 2011 and 2014, and 93 spots have been rectified. Work on the remaining black spots is on.

The minister asked the states to consider building road over-bridges and road under-bridges at level-crossings on the state highways. With India over five lakh road accidents in 2015, killing 1.46 lakh people, Gadkari said the government was committed to reducing accidents.