BHUBANESWAR: The State Government collected Rs 38.67 crore towards penalty for violation of traffic norms under the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, 2019 between September 1, 2019, and January 31, 2020.
Strict enforcement of the traffic norms has also brought down the number of accidents and deaths. In a written reply to a question from Tara Prasad Bahinipati (Congress) in the Assembly on Thursday, Commerce and Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera said the number of accidents in December 2019 came down to 1,047 from 1,081 in the same period in 2018.
Similarly, there were 430 deaths due to accidents in December 2019 compared to 588 during the same month in the previous year.
In September 2018, there were 844 accidents and 367 deaths, whereas the same period in 2019 witnessed 702 accidents and 323 deaths.
The Minister said during a four-month period from September to December 2019, accidents and deaths came down to 3,563 and 1,541 compared to 3,810 and 1,856 in the corresponding period of 2018.
Behera said 4,13,994 applications for driving licence were received till January 31, 2020, after the new MVA Act came into force.
So far, driving licence has been issued to 2,87,932 applicants, he added.
Replying to a separate question, the Minister said 28,63,648 pollution under control certificates were issued to vehicles between September 2019 and February 15 this year, while fitness certificates were issued to 13,90,48 vehicles during the same period.