Amendments to the Motor Vehicle (MV) Act and the Surrogacy Regulation Bill were re-introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in the Lok Sabha on Monday. These bills had lapsed since they had not been passed by the Rajya Sabha.
The proposed amendments to the MV Act seeks to provide a compensation of ₹5 lakh for death and ₹2.5 lakh for grievous injury in a motor vehicle accident case. Among other provisions, the bill seeks to increase penalties for violations, facilitate grant of online learning licence, simplified provisions for insurance to provide expeditious help to accident victims and their families, and protection of good samaritans.
The Bill also proposes to raise the time limit for renewal of driving licence from one month to one year before and after the expiry date.
TMC objects
Trinamool Congress members Saugata Roy and Mohua Moitra opposed certain provisions in the Bill. Mr Roy said it would take away powers of State governments and infringe on their rights. Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said he was opposing a few provisions of the bill and not its entirety.
With several Opposition members expressing apprehension about the bill taking away the rights of the States, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari tried to reassure them and urged the House to pass the legislation to help save lives.
“My department has failed to pass the Bill in the last five years but the number of accidents has reduced by around 3-4% in the last five years while the incidence came down by around 15% in Tamil Nadu during the same period,” he noted.
The provisions in the legislation are not binding on States and it is up to them to implement it, the Minister added.
Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan re-introduced the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha, which seeks to prohibit commercial surrogacy in the country.
‘Altruistic surrogacy’
The Bill seeks to “allow ethical altruistic surrogacy to the intending infertile Indian married couple between the age of 23-50 years and 26-55 years for female and male, respectively.”
The Bill states that a woman should be allowed to act as a surrogate only once, should be a close relative of the intending couple and “should be an ever-married woman having a child of her own and between the age of 25-35 years”.