Road rationing to ease traffic jams: HC stays new rule in Aizawl

Source:- eastmojo.com

Aizawl: The Aizawl bench of the Gauhati High Court has stayed the new traffic rule in Aizawl following an appeal by the Mizoram Bar Association, an umbrella organisation of all advocates in the state, sources said on Thursday.

The new rules restricting movement of vehicles to ease traffic snarls in Aizawl was supposed to become effective from June 1.

Taking the new rules as trampling on the rights of the people, the Mizoram Bar Association filed a PIL on May 30, following which the Gauhati High Court earlier stayed the rule till June 6 by its order on May 31 and schedule the next hearing for Thursday (June 6).

The high court heard the case again on Thursday according to which it issued a judgment stating that the new rule should not be enforced till further order.

In an effort to ease the increasing traffic snarls in Aizawl, the meeting of state coordination committee on traffic management held on April 25, had decided to introduce new traffic rule in Aizawl from June 1 to replace the existing traffic rule introduced by the erstwhile Congress government in 2017.

According to the new rule, any vehicle whose registration number ended with 1 or 2 can’t ply on Monday, 3 or 4 on Tuesday, 5 or 6 on Wednesday, 7 or 8 on Thursday, and 9 or 10 on Friday. All vehicles would be free to move on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays, according to the new rules.

In October, 2017, the Congress government had introduced traffic rule for rotational service of all vehicles on even-odd basis.

As per the rules, vehicles were not allowed to ply on days when their last digit of registration number drew similar to a particular date. For example a vehicle, whose registration number ended with 1 could not move on date 1, 11, 21 and 31 of every month.

There are more than 1.19 lakh vehicles in Aizawl accounting to 70% of the total vehicles in Aizawl district. More than 23,800 vehicles are expected to rest every day when the new rule is implemented.