In Himachal Pradesh, third party claim settlement will now be done through the Transport Department in case of accidents involving all other government vehicles including HRTC buses. For this, Director Transport has been made an authority and a fund of eight crores has been created by the state government. For this, the Himachal government has amended the Himachal Pradesh Motor Vehicle Rules. The draft notification of this amendment has been issued. Under this Rule 214 Sub Rule 2 has been amended. The Supreme Court had earlier given orders in this regard to all the governments. The Government of India has already created this fund at its own level, but this has not happened in the State Government yet. It may be noted that the vehicles of all government departments including HRTC buses are not insured in Himachal.
In the absence of insurance, the concerned department used to send the case to the Finance Department for third party claim after going to the Transport Tribunal in case of an accident. Claim settlement in this process used to take a lot of time. The Supreme Court had also given orders to simplify the process of compensation. Now Principal Secretary Transport has issued a draft notification for amendment in Motor Vehicle Rules, in which objections have also been sought from the people within a week. In this, the third party claim will be under the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923. The state government has initially created a fund of eight crores. After the claim settlement, the more money will decrease, the government will keep pouring more money into it. The advantage of this will be that the case related to the accident will continue, but the claim settlement can happen earlier. For this, there will be no need to send or ask the file to the Finance Department or any other department.
