Motor vehicles Act: Poll bound Maharashtra says no

For poll-bound Maharashtra, implementing the amended Motor Vehicles Act, could have created resentment.

Instead, the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP-Shiv Sena saffron alliance government has taken a safe route and requested the Centre to reconsider the hefty challans.

Maharashtra's transport minister Diwakar Raote of the Shiv Sena has written to Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari requesting to reduce the "exorbitantly increased" fines.

On September 11, Raote in a letter to Gadkari, said: "It is seen that the fines prescribed in the new Act have been increased exorbitantly and have raised a public outcry. The Centre is requested to reconsider and reduce the same by making suitable amendments in the Motor Vehicles Act."

Raote's letter came hours after Gadkari at an event in Mumbai said, "The government does not intend to garner revenue by increasing fines. The idea is to make roads safer and reduce the number of accidents. Are fines more important than someone's life? You won't be fined if you don't break the rules."

Meanwhile, farmers' leader and Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti founder Kishor Tiwari, who is the chairman of Maharashtra government's Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Samiti, said that the move will spur suicides.

"It is against the middle class, it is anti-people," said Tiwari, who is very close to Gadkari and Fadnavis.