Extra burden of 0.5 % on new vehicle buyers
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Jan 9: While putting extra burden of 0.5 % of the cost of vehicle on the common man in the process of registration of the new vehicles with the respective Regional Transport authorities in the J&K UT, the Lt Governor’s Administration has created the Road Accident Victim Fund (RAVF).
The Principal Secretary to Government, Transport Department, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon today accorded sanction to the creation of Road Accident Victim Fund and also issued the Jammu and Kashmir Road Accident Victims Fund Rules- 2020 for regulating the newly generated Fund.
Though initially, the Corpus fund with a minimum balance of Rs one crore shall be created in the Transport Department with the assistance of Finance Department, but mainly the Fund will be generated and regulated with the contribution of the buyers of the new vehicles as now onwards, they will have to deposit at least Rs 5000 (one time) towards Road Accident Victims Fund if the cost of vehicle is Rs 10 lakh and Rs 2500 in case of the vehicle’s cost is Rs 5 lakhs, at the time of registration of vehicle with the concerned RTO/ARTO in J&K UT. It would be an additional burden on those buying public transport vehicles/ goods carriers.
Samoon said the aim of the fund is to introduce a welfare scheme for providing succour to the legal heirs of the persons killed/injured in road accidents of passenger cum private vehicles, including the vehicles owned by Government/ Corporation/ Public Sector Undertaking etc.
He added that 0.5 percent of the cost of vehicle would be charged towards the Fund as a one-time contribution at the time of registration of vehicle. The Fund will be specially used for payment of ex-gratia relief to the victims of road accidents in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
A senior official said that a Committee will be formed to grant the relief to the dependents with Administrative Secretary Transport as Chairman, Transport Commissioner, representative of Finance Department as members and Additional Secretary (Technical) Road Safety Council as Member Secretary of the Committee.
He said Rs 1 lakh will be provided to the dependents in case of death of a person, Rs 75,000 in case of permanent disability, Rs 50,000 in case of serious injuries and Rs 10,000 for minor injuries.
“The relief sanctioned by the appropriate authority shall be in addition to any other relief, if any, to be sanctioned by the Government or by any other authority under any law for the time being in force. These rules shall be applicable to `Hit and Run’ cases also. In addition to the passenger victims, these rules shall be applicable to road users/pedestrians also,” the official said.
Elaborating further on the procedure of the payment, the official said Transport Commissioner shall compile the list of road accident victims received from the Deputy Commissioner of the concerned district comprising the information of the accident and victims along with details of media reports, the family members of the victim with residential proof and bank account details which shall be placed before the committee for accord of sanction and further disbursement. The committee after proper verification shall sanction the amount, the official said.
In case of beneficiary being domicile of any district other than the district where accident occurs, a proper verification of legal heirs of deceased shall be done by the DC of that district. And if the victim hails from other State/ non-resident, the verification report from the District Magistrate of his / her own district shall be needed for releasing the amount, he added.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
