House passes six Demands amounting to Rs 525.16 crore
CM assures new fare regulation
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR

Imphal, February 09 2021: On the 5th day of the Budget Session today, the House passed Demands for Grants amounting to a total of Rs 525,16,60,000 (Five hundred twenty five crore, sixteen lakh and sixty thousand) .

The Demand for Grants cleared are Rs 176,59,57,000 for State Legislature; Rs 12,46,46,000 for Council of Ministers; Rs 186,71,96,000 for Secretariat; Rs 32,33,39,000 for Transport; Rs 38,40, 99,000 for Co-operation and Rs 78,64, 23,000 for Relief and Disaster Management.

During the discussion on demand for grants, Chief Minister N Biren Singh assured the House that a new regulation on passengers' fare for public transport will be notified soon.

The previous notification regarding the passengers' fare will be reviewed in consultation with the stakeholders concerned, he added.

House passes six Demands amounting to Rs 525.16 crore

The leader of the House was responding to a cut motion raised by Opposition MLA Surjakumar Okram.

N Biren continued that the new regulation will decide which types of transport/passenger vehicle will charge how much fare.

The regulation/fare will be made known to the public via the media, he said.

On traffic law and regulations, N Biren said people should adopt the habit of wearing helmets and follow the traffic safety measures.

There have been many drives to encourage people to wear helmets when driving two-wheeler vehicles.

Intensifying the drive, traffic violators who are detained for driving without helmets are not released until they wear a helmet now.

Wearing helmets can protect one from serious injuries and even death in an accident, he said, adding that other vehicles without registration numbers and side mirrors will also be checked.

MLA Surjakumar Okram had stated that the Transports Department has not been able to regulate fare, enforce the traffic and other transports related rules.

He accused the Department of issuing driving licenses without much scrutiny and further stressed on the lack of parking space in Imphal city area.

He said residents of the city having no parking facilities are buying four wheeler vehicles and parking them on the road causing traffic congestion.

In terms of the number of traffic accidents and related deaths, Manipur ranks first among the North-East States, he said.

Responding to the cut motion, Transport Minister Vungzagin Valte said that the processes for registering vehicles and application of driving licenses and other documents have been made 'online' for the convenience of the public.

A fresh applicant for a driving license is first provided with a learner's license for one month to 6 months and after this, he/she is provided with the driving license.

To monitor and regulate traffic and parking, a Traffic Regulation and Parking Committee has been set up.

Under this committee, a subcommittee headed by the Director of Transport will be formed to look into the parking spaces problems.

The subcommittee will also have the Superintendent of Traffic Control as its member.

The subcommittee will identify people who have land that may be used as parking space.

These lands will be used as parking space on 'payment-use' mode, he said.

He also expressed concern that the Department currently has 233 vacancies and as such it is not able to perform to its full potential.

Regarding the issue of traffic congestion, the Transport Minister said Manipur has a population of about 28.5 lakh and the number of registered vehicles as on February 3 this year was 4,53,732.As compared to other States, this number is 'very high' and 80% of the vehicles are plying in the valley area, mainly at Imphal.

This is one of the major reasons for traffic congestion in Imphal city, he said.

On the other hand, replying to a cut motion by MLA Surjakumar, Chief Minister N Biren Singh who is also the Minister for Relief and Disaster Management, said the State Disaster Rapid Force (SDRF) played significant roles in combating the Covid pandemic since the very beginning.

The SDRF personnel were deployed in sensitive and hyper-sensitive zones during the pandemic and they rendered their services when the State was at a critical juncture due to the pandemic, he said.

Today, Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar, who is also in-charge of Finance laid "The Manipur Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Rules, 2021" on the floor of the House.