The Goa government (despite of seeing the continuous rise in petrol/diesel prices on a daily basis and watching thousands of our Goans still sitting jobless at home due to the aftermath of the pandemic in the state) have finally mercilessly implemented the amended New Central Motor Vehicles Act (MVA) from this month itself with the sole intention of desperately filling it’s own empty coffers (which must have definitely gone dry due to money spent during the recently held assembly elections) and have mentally started torturing all the ‘aam-Goans’ in Goa.
Hey, what does the Goa government really think? That most Goans (especially those who are working in the private sector in the state) are earning hefty salaries of Rs 50,000 to 80,000 per month and roaming around with bundles of cash (including multiple credit cards) in their wallets whilst moving around daily with their two/four wheeler vehicles on most of the city roads (including village roads) in Goa?
Of course, the State government claims that it had no choice but to implement the enhanced fine as per the New Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 Act as Goa was on the radar of the Supreme Court monitoring committee for quite some time for implementation of new laws. Well, if the matter was so much serious (as being claimed now through the local media) then why the same government was hesitating to take a firm decision over this issue for the last two years and has now decided to implement the same only after the assembly election results in Goa?
Well, the New Motor Vehicles Act might sound interesting only on paper but on the ground, I don’t think that it will ever bring any discipline or make our roads any safer even in the near future. That’s because the cops from the traffic cell are historically known for not keeping an eye against those indulging in drunken driving, over-taking/over speeding, driving on the wrong side of the road, using cell phones while driving etc despite of installing so many hi-fi CCTV cameras (God alone knows whether their so-called ‘cameras’ are really working or not) for show everywhere but are known for habitually collecting only money from soft targets (especially from all the two-wheeler riders even after wearing helmets) by hiding/standing in large groups like dacoits on all the major road-side joints in Goa.
I therefore strongly believe that the Government of the day should first try to improve the public transport system on top priority basis throughout the state, encourage people to travel daily in buses for work/other things and discourage them from buying/using their own two/four wheeler vehicles whilst commuting everywhere to create more nuisance on our already congested roads of Goa.
And last but not the least, the government should compulsorily give guaranteed jobs to all the unemployed youth with descent salaries and then try to give it’s own justifications for imposing the new fines running in thousands of rupees on all our poor Goans by simply giving the excuse of the Supreme Court and unleashing the cops from the traffic cell to fill it’s own empty coffers in Goa…..
