TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: South Indian States have expressed apprehensions over the Union Government’s proposed draft Road Safety and Transport Bill 2015, claiming that the bill seeks to divest the States of their powers and impact the federal structure of India. The Goa government has, however, welcomed the bill that proposes hefty fines on traffic violators.
Acknowledging the objections, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari told the States not to worry and called for a meeting of all States concerned next week to discuss their apprehensions in detail.
The Bill was discussed during the two-day 21st South India Transport Council (SITC) meeting where Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments expressed their objections to the bill, and sought necessary amendments. SITC has appealed to the Centre to take all the States into confidence before finalizing the bill.
“There are many provisions in the proposed road safety bill, which affect the powers and jurisdiction (decision making) of State governments. Many of the existing powers are proposed to be vested with the Centre and independent bodies such as National Authority and National Transport Authority, which goes against the federal structure,” Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said.
Reddy said that the taxation powers and formation of notified schemes are proposed to be taken by the Central government and independent bodies. “This will adversely affect the revenue and powers of the State government,” he said.
Supporting him, Transport Minister of Kerala Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan pointed out that as per Section 2 of the Act, the States or Union Territories will have no control over road transport within their territory which is against the federal structure of the country and the Constitution of India. “Due to this, States will not be able to formulate schemes or programmes which are State specific and the entire control of road transport, road safety and planning will rest with the Centre,” he lamented.
In a bid to address these fears, Gadkari said that the Centre did not want to disturb the spirit of co-operative federalism. “I assure the States that they will not be disturbed. We will not take a single paisa from your revenue and in fact we want to support the States,” he said, adding that there are some misconceptions about the proposed Act.
Gadkari informed SITC about the formation of a committee in consultation with the World Bank which will study the road laws of various foreign countries such as the UK.
“As far as our country is concerned we have five lakh accidents every year and over 1.50 lakh road deaths. We always consider drivers as responsible for the accident but it is not true. There are some road problems and there are lot of things which are associated with the vehicles,” he said.
The minister assured to tackle all apprehensions of States about the proposed Road Safety Bill, before the April 20 session of Parliament.
