Tirupati : Demanding the withdrawal of the new criminal law enhancing punishment in road accidents, members of the CITU along with the All India Road Transport Workers Federation staged dharna here on Wednesday.
Drivers from various places who came in a rally participated in the dharna.
Speaking on the occasion, CITU district president G Balasubramanyam said the new criminal law with regard to punishments to drivers in road accident cases is very stringent and unbearable.
Under the new law, Section-106(1) for causing death due to negligence in driving increased imprisonment to 5 years against 2 years earlier, which will make the life of a driver miserable.
Similarly in the hit-and-run case, the punishment was increased to 10 years, in other words the drivers have to suffer in jail for a decade, leaving their families in lurch. Moreover, under the new law the driver should immediately appear before the police or magistrate after any fatal accident. CITU leaders N Madhav and K Venugopal said the new criminal law was brought into force without consulting the concerned, including drivers association, police and transport authorities and is not at all practical in our country. The leaders demanded the Union government to immediately roll back or else the drivers will intensify the agitation nationwide. Ramanaiah, Thanjavur Murali, Bujji, Vasu, Kumar, Venkatesh and Srinivasulu were present.
