Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Sept 12: State Road Safety Council, which had been constituted by the State Government to act as Traffic Regularity Authority of the State shall hold its first meeting day after tomorrow under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary.
Official sources stated that the agenda for the first meeting of the Regulatory body would be to formulate the guidelines for road safety of commuters across the State. “Due to rising number of road accidents across the State, it had become imperative to constitute a body to look into the measures aimed at ensuring safety of people”, sources said.
The Council shall comprise several senior members including four Secretary level officials, whose Departments had pivotal role in traffic management. Besides, it is likely to include Director General of Police (DGP) and three Chief Engineers of Beacon.
The Council headed by the Chief Secretary had actually been constituted in March this year vide SRO 52 on the recommendations of the House Committee constituted to look into the cause of road accidents in Chenab Valley region.
Sources stated that the Council would also hold deliberations over various provisions of the ‘Safety policy’, which had to be implemented in the State at the earliest possible. “After the endorsement of the Safety policy by the Regulatory body, it shall be extended to all areas of the State”, sources emphasized.
Elaborating further, sources stated that the meeting would be aimed to identify the vulnerable “black spots” in the accident –prone zones of the States and discuss the measure aimed to plug them from all possible angles. “It is imperative to involve all the stake holders from other departments including Roads and Buildings, Transport, Traffic and others”.
Sources stated that the high level council shall also advise the Government by threadbare analyzing the road accident data and suggest measures for provision of trauma and healthcare facilities to the victims. Further, the meeting shall also discuss steps required for proper training of drivers of passenger vehicles. The Regulatory Body shall also organize and conduct specialised training courses, conferences and seminars, besides conducting consultancy studies such as safety audits, hazard evaluation & risk assessment for the benefit of commuters.
Qamar Ali Akhoon, Minister for Transport when contacted told EXCELSIOR that the constitution of the Road Safety Council would be a major step to coordinate the functioning of various departments involved in making policies to curb the accident rate in the State. “All senior officials would be present in the meeting and it shall frame a comprehensive policy for the State”, he added.
Further, the State Government had also formulated Transport Welfare Scheme since 2010 that is aimed at providing some monetary relief to all the victims of these accidents. The installation of traffic lights in the twin capital cities has also provided some relief to the commuters.
Transport Commissioner, Pawan Kotwal stated that the Traffic Regulatory Authority would suggest measures to prevent casualties in the State. “After framing of the Safety policy, it shall be implemented across the State at the earliest possible”.
“It is very important to curb the growing rate of accidents across the country. By making road safety a priority in the next decade, we shall also be abiding by the world opinion on this subject as 2011-2020 has been declared as the Decade for action for road safety by the UN General Assembly”, he added.
The State Safety Council is being constituted on the lines of National Safety Council (NSC), which was constituted by the Ministry of Labour, Government of India (GoI) in 1966 to generate, develop and sustain a voluntary movement on Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) at the national level.
According to official figures, as many as 2162 persons have died and around 20,000 were injured in about 12,000-road accidents in the State during the past two years. The erstwhile Doda district alone counts more than 400 deaths and injuries to nearly 2000 persons in 1169 accidents.
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