Those who are venturing out due to unavoidable circumstances or for the pure love of travel now longer need not worry about carrying the driver license or RC in physical from. An amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act 1989 now says that starting from October 1, 2020, drivers need not carry their vehicle documents. These also include the PUC. Instead the vehicle papers, if they need to be checked, will be done digitally. All police officers will be carrying digital scanners to help maintain social distancing and at the same time, remove the harassment angle. Moreover, bribery acts too will be curtailed with this enforcement. The authorities feel that this will also help implement better discpline with respect to road usage.
If a policeman on duty has checked and verified your vehicle document papers online, his name will appear against the record. If the vehicle has travelled from this point and another policeman asks to check the documents, he will immediately come to know that the details have already been noted. This in turn will avoid harassment of road users wherein they are frequently frisked. Even if there is an offence registered against the driver, it will be noted online and the challan for the same has to be paid via internet.
Further, the driver of the vehicle can use a handheld device for route navigation, specifies the new amendment. This means, one can use cellphones that show map cordinates without disturbing the concentration of the driver while driving. It is unclear yet if infotainment system maps will still be considered or not. A majority of the cars these days use GPS embedded infotainment systems and these are of great help while navigating unknown terrains. Most of the vehicle manufacturers also place them at near-eye level so that the driver doesn’t have to take his eyes off the road while checking the maps.
