Despite a continuous rise in deaths in road accidents, the government’s order of fitting speed governors in the commercial vehicles are openly being violated.
According to a government data, India tops the chart of death in road accidents in the world with around 1,06,591 deaths per year. That means we lost 14 lives an hour in road accidents.
70 per cent of these accidents were committed by commercial vehicles, which are only 10 per cent of the total numbers of vehicles in India.
The authorised manufacturers of the speed governor have complained to the transport commissioners of Haryana and Punjab about the business of fake speed governor in their states, which is causing huge loss to them and violating the Motor Vehicle Act number 118 of speed governor.
One of the company’s senior employees, who make speed governor, told this newspaper that such companies are suffering from huge losses because of the fake speed governor business in Haryana and Punjab. They complained to the transport commissioners on Saturday.
“We are a certified company and we make the speed governor as per the government norms. We spend around `1 lakh on every authentic speed governor but the business of fake speed governor is damaging the authentic business badly. We have complained to the transport commissioners of these two states to take action,” he said on condition of anonymity. A copy of the complaint is with this newspaper.
Rashmi Oberoi, an NGO worker, who is actively involved in tackling such issues, said that the laziness of government machinery and the nexus of local Motor vehicle Inspectors and the fake speed governor makers are the main reason behind the road accidents.
“The speed governor is a machine which is planted on the fuel supply of the engine and as the vehicle crosses the speed limit it cuts the fuel supply and stops the engine. This machine will only work if an authorised dealer makes it properly. But some people are making fake speed governor and selling it on very low prices and their nexus from the local Motor Vehicle inspector resulting as an illegal money making business,” she said.
The officials however remained silent when asked about the issue and said that they will investigate the matter.