.

E
H
F

K F

: 24.04.2 0 1 5

PMK Youth Wing President Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss Statement

DROP THE ROAD TRANSPORT

AND SAFETY BILL 2014
The central government had decided to introduce the draft Road Transport and Safety
bill in place of the Motor Vehicle Act 1988. The government says that the bill is brought
to end loss of lives in road traffic accidents.
There cannot be a second opinion that the bad reputation of India as the country with
the highest number of road traffic accidents and casualties should be erased. But the
provisions in the draft bill will take away the powers of the state governments, favour
corporate companies and will reduce job opportunities.
The new bill proposed by the Centre will take away all the powers of the State
Government in the transport sector. A newly constitutedMotor Vehicle Regulation &
Road Safety Authority of India will have powers on all transport related matters like
fixing and collecting vehicle taxes, registration and issuance of permits. These functions
will not be executed directly by the proposed authority. Instead the authority will operate
through private companies. Per example at present new vehicles are registered at Regional
Transport Offices. Hereafter these offices will be closed. Instead the manufactures of the
vehicles themselves will register them. There is a danger of collection of up to 10 times
of the present registeration fees.
Only the Motor Vehicle Regulation & Road Safety Authority can give permits for operating
buses in a particular route. These permits will be issued by competitive bidding and
corporates can snatch these permits by paying the highest bid. The state governments
transport corporations cannot compete with the corporates and gradually the number
of government operated buses will decrease. Simultaneously private buses will increase.
Since the private bus owners will be given full powers to fix fares, no one can stop the
stupendous increase of fares. Bus transport will become unreachable for the poor and
middle class people.
The new bill will make all existing driving licences invalid. New driving licences should
be obtained within two years of enactment of the bill. The new licences will be issued by
private companies. That will be charged exorbitantly. Assuming that 30 crore people are
having driving licenses in India at present and each has to pay Rs. 5000 for obtaining
license, private firms will be extracting 1.5 Lakh crores of money from the public. It is

. E
H
F

K F

:
not only unnecessary that those who already have valid licenses should obtain new licences, it
will also cause unnecessary expenditure and scramble. The present licences are issued by the
state governments. Declaring them as invalid amounts to suspecting the state Governments.
This is against the federal principle. Devolution of powers is recognized as the best way to
make administration effective all over the world. The BJP in its election manifesto spoke about
Team India where the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers will be equal partners in planning
and promised about evolving a working system that will lead to harmonious relations. But
contrary to its own statement it is attempting to centralize everything to the detriment of the
national integrity.
Since private firms will be taking over the jobs of offering driving training and issuing licenses,
lakhs of driving schools in the country will be closed taking away jobs of lakhs of people.
The new bill proposes to do away with the conductor jobs and those who are working as
conductors with licenses will lose their jobs. Those who are awaiting for jobs with licenseswill
lose job opportunities. Similarly motor insurance sector, spare parts manufacturing sector and
other related sectors will be distressed. The central government is claiming that 10 lakh people
will get jobs. The truth is that if the law is enacted lakhs will lose their jobs.
The central government should drop this black legislation that will take away the powers of
the state governments and the rights of the people and present them in a platter to the private
companies. I, with the concurrence of Doctor Ayya announce that PMK will support the strike
announced by various trade unions on the 30th of this month against this legislation.

Yours,

Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss