CM Mamata says won’t enforce hefty fines for traffic violations

Kolkata: Continuing her opposition to the Narendra Modi government, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday ruled out her government's implementation of the Motor Vehicle Act, passed with a set of amendments in  Parliament recently, in the state describing it "too harsh."

At the state secretariat: Nabanna she said, "We opposed the amendments in Parliament. We had pointed out that it would interfere in the federal structure. But they did not pay heed to us. The decision was taken single-handedly. In some cases a challan amount goes up to `10,000."

Ms Banerjee elaborated, "There are many poor people in our state. Where will they arrange such a huge amount from traffic rule violation? Money can not solve all problems. If we implement the amended Motor Vehicles Act, it will hurt general people. It is too harsh."

She added, "We can not create a burden on the people. We spoke to our officials about it. So it will not be implemented in our state. We also have our own laws apart from initiatives like Safe Drive Save Life. Police and many voluntary organisations are working with it. As a result the number of accidents has gone down."

The Trinamul Congress supremo also announced that her government would not kickstart its work immediately to build Deocha-Pachami Coal Block in south western part and Dewanganj Harisingha block in western fringe of Birbhum, billed to be the world's second largest coal mine with an estimated coal reserve of 2.1 billion tonnes.

She made it clear that her government would undertake the work only after resettlement of the families, who are going to be displaced due to the project, and addressing environmental issues. Ms Banerjee observed that it has been her principle to not to jump into any project without any rehabilitation.

She argued, "We will go ahead with the project with caution taking care of every aspect from resettlement to environment. There are about 395 families, accounting 40 per cent tribals, in Deocha-Pachami.

“We call both the blocks as Deocha-Pachami. At Dewanganj, the resettlement will be for another 389 families."

The CM elaborated, "So the total number of families to be rehabilitated is 784. We want to take all stakeholders into confidence before moving ahead.”