Reverse gear: Karnataka to withdraw notification on speed governors

Reverse gear: Karnataka to withdraw notification on speed governors
DNA Correspondent
Monday, October 20, 2008 20:55 IST
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BANGALORE: The strong resistance from lorry owners and other commercial transport operators to the Karnataka government's move to make mandatory the installation of speed governors in vehicles has finally borne fruit.

The state government has now decided to withdraw the contentious notification issued in 2005 making speed governors mandatory.

The state cabinet is expected to take a formal decision in this regard within three days.

The Karnataka Lorry Owners' Association, which had been fighting a legal battle against the notification, had threatened to launch a state-wide lorry strike from November 1 if the government failed to withdraw the notification.

Transport minister R Ashok, who reviewed the functioning of the transport department along with chief minister B S Yeddyurappa here on Monday, said, "The state government has been forced to have a rethink on the issue, in the absence of a uniform national policy on regulating the speed of motor vehicles. The implementation of the speed governor notification in the state would only have resulted in huge losses under the head of motor vehicles tax, as vehicle owners would have preferred to register their vehicles in other states to escape the speed governor rule. It would cause a setback for trade and industry in the state and also cause inconvenience to the general public as commercial vehicles would be forced to move slower."

"The Centre should have taken the initiative to implement uniform system on speed governors and regulate the speed of vehicles on national highways. I have written thrice to the Centre requesting it to take the lead in this regard, but it has not cared to respond. The new highways and expressways being built in the country are good enough for raising the speed limit to 100km/hr. The speed governor limits it to 60km/hr," Ashok said.

When questioned about the legal feasibility of withdrawing the notification when the issue was before the Supreme Court, Ashok said, "The decision has been taken only after discussing the issue with advocate-general Uday Holla. There is no legal hurdle to withdraw the notification issued when Mallikarjun Kharge was the trasnport minister."

The transport department has also decided to strengthen the enforcement machinery to prevent loss and pilferage of revenue in the department by deploying about 1,000 homeguard personnel to assist brake inspectors and road transport officers at checkposts and other places.

The department has been set a target of Rs 2,218 crore during the current year which is 33 per cent higher than the previous year. The collection so far has touched Rs 850 crore and the minister expressed the confidence of achieving the target in the remaining the five months.