Budget 2027 Funds a Digital Demerit-Point System for Bad Drivers — Will It Stick?

Budget 2027 sets aside Rs 1.5 billion for a digital demerit-point system linking DMT and Police, meant to track repeat offenders and eventually suspend licences for those who keep racking up points. Sri Lanka has talked about points-based licensing for years but enforcement has always leaked through paper records, bribery at the roadside, and courts that rarely follow up. Supporters say a digital system finally gives police a real deterrent beyond a one-time fine that gets forgotten by the next junction, and could cut the three-wheeler cut-ins, bus overtakes and lane-hopping that cause so many of our accidents. Skeptics point out RMV's own backlog and the eRL crashes show the digital side of government struggles to run basic systems reliably, so a demerit database could end up just as patchy as the paper one, with fines still negotiable at the roadside. Would a points system actually change how people drive here, or will it just become another database nobody checks? If you drive for a living or deal with traffic daily, has anything like this worked where you've seen it abroad? ලස්සන වෙනස් කරන නීතියක් වෙයිද, නැත්නම් තව එකක් ගොනු කරන ලේඛනයක් පමණක් වෙයිද?