Southern states express concerns over Road Transport Bill

Panaji: Karnataka and Kerala governments have expressed fears over the Centre's proposed Road Transport Bill which, they claim, will "take away their rights", even as the government has assured that there is no need to worry.

The issue is being discussed during the ongoing 21st South India Transport Council meeting in Goa where the Karnataka and Kerala governments have expressed their objections to the proposed Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2015.

Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari was present at the meeting which was inaugurated on Friday.

"As per section 2 of the said act (proposed Bill), the states and Union Territories will have no control over road transport in its territory which is against the federal set of the country and its Constitution," Kerala's Transport Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said addressing the meeting last evening.

"Due to this, the state government 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 be with the Union government," he said.

Referring to section 86 of the proposed bill dealing with taxation of motor vehicles, he said, "Motor vehicle tax is a major source of revenue for the state governments and taking over this power from the states will be against the spirit of the country's Constitution."

"If this bill is passed in the present form, the powers of the state government to issue permit, fixation of revision of fares, inter-state transport agreement and collection of compounding fees will be taken away from the states. This will also affect primary travelling needs of the public in the states," he added.

Echoing similar views, Karnataka's Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said there are many provisions in the bill which affect the powers and jurisdiction of state governments.

"Many of the powers are proposed to be vested with the Central government and independent bodies like National Transport Authority which goes against the federal structure," the minister said.

Responding to their fears, Gadkari said the Centre does not want to disturb the spirit of co-operative federalism.

"I assure to the states that they (governments) will not be disturbed. We will not take a single paisa from your revenue and in fact, we want to give support to the states," he said.

There are some misconceptions about the proposed act, the Union Minister said.

"We have formed a committee in consultation with the World Bank and we will study (road laws) on UK and foreign countries. We will consider what their laws are and on that basis we will amend our bill," he said.

"As far as our country is concerned, we have five lakh accidents every year...We always consider the driver as responsible for the accident, but it is not true. Some where there are road problems and there are lot of things which are associated with the vehicles," he said.