Sources from Chennai have stated that Tamil Nadu tops the country in the number of road accidents, but that hasn’t had much impact on enforcement, according to statistics from the State Transport Authority and one would expect stricter measures to reduce accidents and fatalities, especially cancellation of driving licenses of those involved in fatal accidents and drunken driving.
Presently data has also shown that even in cases of drunken driving, the system has become lax, while 1,356 licenses were cancelled in 2008-09, just 622 were cancelled in 2015-16 and even the number of licenses suspended has declined from 7,691 in 2008-09 to just 4,057 in 2015-16.
Meanwhile a senior traffic police officer said the police can only send proposals to cancel licenses and this has to be implemented by the Transport department. However, sources in the State Transport department say that only 23 cancellation requests had come in last year and the licenses were cancelled.
Lawyers have told that a lack of proper enforcement, shortage of officers in courts, large number of pending cases and a lack of a proper mechanism to ensure licenses are not given back to drivers before the mandated period, is leading to lesser cancellations.
