Gujarat Congress Launches ’Missed Call’ Campaign Against New Motor Vehicle Act; Protests in Other Parts of State

Ahmedabad: As Gujarat implemented the new Motor Vehicle Act, 2019 on Monday, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) announced a ‘missed call’ campaign against the new Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, 2019 and asked people to give a ‘missed call’ to lodge their protests against the new law.

“The new law is nothing but another way to harass common people and Congress will protest against it. We have launched a ‘missed call’ campaign wherein people can give a ‘missed call’ (079410 50774) on the given number and lodge their protests against the ‘Tughalakhi’ law,’’ said Amit Chavda, President of GPCC.

Targeting government’s lack of preparation, Chavda said, “It is good that the number of vehicular accidents will reduce but the central and state government have implemented this law without any preparation. People are not getting helmets and due to lack of sufficient Pollution Under Control (PUC) centers in the state, people are finding it difficult to get the PUC certificates and the state is looting them for no fault of theirs,’’ Chavda said.

The Congress leader further said that citizens are tired of bovines roaming on city roads, because of which they were unable to drive safely.

“People need quality roads for safe driving but you can’t find them anywhere in the state and the government is busy imposing hefty traffic fines on common people,’’ Chavda added.

Meanwhile, People from many parts of the state protested against the new law which has been implemented from today. A Lakhtar town in Surendranagar district observed bandh against the hefty traffic fines.

Protesting against the unavailability of helmets in the city, a Rajkot based lawyer, GB Trivedi, used a bicycle instead of a motorbike to reach his office.

In another case, one commuter in Rajkot was spotted driving his motorbike while wearing a utensil (Locally called Tapeli).

Last week, the Gujarat government had announced a reduction in the fines under the new Motor Vehicles Act. As per the revised rates, the penalty for not wearing a helmet has been brought down from Rs 1,000 to Rs 500. Similarly, violators will be charged Rs 500 for not wearing seatbelts instead of Rs 1,000.