In the latest, a truck driver was fined a whopping Rs. 205,000 (about $2,820), on Wednesday. It is perhaps the highest traffic penalty imposed under the amended Motor Vehicles Act in India so far.
The truck driver stopped by traffic police on GT Karnal Road on the outskirts of Delhi and was penalised under multiple violations with the highest for having an overweight vehicle and lesser fines for issues with his driver's licence, pollution test certificate and registration certificate.
— ANI (@ANI) September 12, 2019
This comes just days after a truck driver from the Indian State of Rajasthan was fined Rs. 150,000 for similar violations.
The hefty penalties have left netizens gawking and caused a furore on social media.
— Bagad Billa 😈👿😈 (@shivkumarssingh) September 12, 2019
— KM (@Kamlesh20620314) September 12, 2019
— Shakeel_Hamid شکیل حمید शकील हमीद (@ShakeelSpeaks) September 12, 2019
Others who were left amused by the incident took to Twitter sharing hilarious memes and jokes.
— Nisha Sharma😄😄😄😄😘😘😘💝💝💝💖💖💖💖 (@NishaSh18183380) September 12, 2019
— अदिति जोशी (@ADITIJOSHI01) September 12, 2019
Truck owner right now 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/eUIuN9t2bF
— Poonam🇮🇳 (@poonam_indian) September 12, 2019
Traffic policemen now a days pic.twitter.com/iR0nwHeT5N
— Humor Being (@followTheGupta) September 12, 2019
In a lighter vein, another user said the truck driver might have to sell his kidney to pay the hefty fine.
Sell kidney to pay challan pic.twitter.com/M8lgbZS7NL
— The Good-for-Nothing CA (@WeirdoVj) September 12, 2019
The move, however, was hailed by many who believe stringent laws are needed for the public good. Many have slammed the truckers for overloading, causing frequent accidents.
Pls dnt terrorise ppl by shwing these high trffic chalans these chalans r due to there fault of nt followin traffic rules. It is for there own & safety of ppl arnd on the roads. Thy hve to follow traffic rules. Hbit hei humare country mei bina dunde u cnt mke nything straight
— Vishal Vasu (@VishalVasu10) September 12, 2019
Good job. I have been driving to and back from work on a highway and have been blessed by God to not have had one of these overloaded trucks with scarily eccentric centres of gravity fall over me.
— Kshitij Agarwal (@FefdeKaDoctor) September 12, 2019
In a separate incident involving an auto-rickshaw driver in the Indian state of Odisha, the police charged the driver a traffic violation fine of Rs. 47,500 ($662) . It raised many eyebrows, considering an auto-rickshaw driver on an average earns around Rs. 3,000 a day in cities.
In one incident, a resident of Delhi was recently fined Rs. 23,000 (about $320) recently in neighbouring Haryana state for a similar offence.
The new laws have been grabbing media headlines since being imposed from 1 September with many people fuming over the penalties increased up to 10 times for some of the most common traffic violations.
As per the Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training survey, one in every three trucks in India is overloaded, and they account for 20% of road accidents.
According to police, the truck was not only overloaded, but the construction material that it was carrying was not covered, a violation that causes air pollution. Overloaded trucks are one of the most hazardous kinds of vehicles on the road, leading to fatal injuries.
