New Delhi, Sep 12: The driver and the owner of a truck were slapped a total fine of over Rs 2 lakh in the national capital, perhaps the highest in the country so far, for various offences under the tweaked Motor Vehicles Act, including overloading and driving without a proper licence, a Delhi Transport Department official said on Thursday.

The truck, having a Haryana registration number, was challaned by an enforcement team of Transport Department on the GT Karnal Road on Wednesday evening, the official said.

Since the implementation of the amended MV Act on September 1, this is the highest amount of fine imposed for violation of norms in Delhi. Earlier, a truck from Rajasthan was challaned with a fine of Rs 1.41 lakh for overloading and other offences.

The enforcement team challaned the truck for a total amount of Rs 2,00,500 for various offences. These included not having a driving licence, pollution under test (PUC) certificate, registration certificate, fitness test, insurance, permit violation and not wearing seat belt, the official said.

The truck was slapped a penalty of Rs 20,000 for overloading, with an additional fine of Rs 36,000 for carrying 18 tonnes above the permissible limit. Each extra tonne of overloading carries a fine of Rs 2,000 under the amended Act, he added.

The total amount of penalty included Rs 1,31,000 for violation of traffic norms and Rs 69,500 on the truck owner. The penalty was paid at the Rohini court on Thursday, the official said.

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Mumbai (PTI): Transporters across Maharashtra on Thursday launched a statewide “chakka jam” to protest against “arbitrary and excessive” e-challans and other issues faced by the sector, and threatened to go on an indefinite strike from midnight.

The state Transport Commissioner’s office has directed all Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) to activate separate control rooms in their jurisdictions to track the protest and share information about any incident that could lead to a law and order situation, an official said.

After the last round of negotiations held at the Maharashtra Transport Commissioner’s office on Wednesday evening remained inconclusive, the Maharashtra Transport Action Committee (M-TAC) said that it would go ahead with the strike.

According to M-TAC representatives, transporters will stage protests at Azad Maidan in Mumbai and outside the Regional Transport Office (RTO) premises in other parts of the state before going on strike from midnight.

M-TAC said school buses, contract carriage buses, private buses and commercial vehicles, including trucks, tempos, taxis and tankers, would remain off the roads during the indefinite agitation. The transporters have also threatened to bring their vehicles to protest sites.

Anil Garg, a leader of the School Bus Owners Association, had said on Wednesday that school buses across the state would not operate from Friday if the indefinite strike happened, though their services would remain unaffected on Thursday.

Earlier this week, Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik also held a meeting with transporters at the MSRTC headquarters here, but M-TAC said the talks remained unfruitful due to what it described as “hollow assurances” from the government.

Sarnaik had appealed to the transporters to withdraw their agitation, stating that the government was positive about cancelling “unjust” e-challans issued to parked vehicles and would take a favourable decision on the matter.

A senior department official said that the Transport Commissioner’s office has asked all RTOs to activate control rooms and alert it in the case of any incident with the potential to create a law and order situation.

All RTOs have been asked to submit a detailed and factual report before 5 pm every day till the strike continues, the official said.

The report should include information such as the impact of the strike in their jurisdiction, the status of essential commodities and passenger movement, preventive steps taken to provide relief to the public, and issues faced during the strike, he said.

M-TAC said the agitation is being organised against what it termed “arbitrary and excessive” electronic traffic enforcement and the mounting financial burden on the transport sector.

The charter of demands submitted by M-TAC to the government earlier this year includes major reforms to the e-challan system, a waiver of pending fines and a reduction in taxes and toll charges imposed on commercial vehicles.

M-TAC leaders claimed the e-challan system has caused hardship not only to transport operators but also to ordinary vehicle owners.

The action committee has also sought the withdrawal or relaxation of a proposed amendment to rules issued in January 2026, requiring transporters to clear e-challan penalties within 45 days, failing which they would face restrictions on essential services such as permit renewal, fitness certification and other regulatory approvals.

“As per Rule 468 and amended Rule 514 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, all time-barred e-challans should be cancelled if cases are not filed in court,” the charter of demands stated.

M-TAC has also demanded the closure of highway check posts and the establishment of rest houses or centres for drivers. It has sought fire tenders and emergency service facilities on highways, provisions for parking lots, bus stops and cargo loading and unloading facilities.

The transporters have further called for a review of the repeated retrofitting of devices such as panic buttons, vehicle location tracking devices, high-security registration plates, fire detection and suppression systems, and CCTV cameras, which they claim are mandated under the pretext of safety.

They have demanded the suspension of what they described as unfeasible and abrupt “no entry” restrictions that cause operational difficulties and have urged the government to adopt a more consultative approach.