Mamata to launch state-wide road safety drive

It may be recalled that Banerjee, while taking part in the discussion on Home Police Budget in the Assembly on July 4 had expressed deep concern over sharp rise in reckless driving and said that some motorcyclists were racing unnecessarily and reckless drivers should be brought to book.

Transport department along with the police with the help of other departments of the state government and agencies will undertake the drive. The main motto behind taking up such a drive is to bring down the number of accidents that take place all most every day due to reckless driving.

The drive will make people aware about the road safety measures. Both the pedestrians and drivers need to be aware about certain facts to avoid road accidents.

Both in the city and the districts, the police will be playing an important role along with the transport department in bringing down the rate of accident by carrying out the drive.

It may be mentioned that as per the report of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, 400 people were killed in road accidents everyday taking the total death toll to 1,46,133 in 2015. It had marked a rise of 4.6 per cent compared to that of 2014’s death toll due to road accidents in the country. The Centre has set a target of reducing it to 50 per cent by the year 2020.

Thus, the state government has also taken necessary steps need to bring down the rate of accidents. Already banners and posters carrying the message “Safe Drive, Save Life” were being displayed in different parts of the city.

It is learnt that similar banners and posters will be put up all across the state. It may be mentioned that police Commissionerates were formed in Howrah, Durgapur-Asansol, Bidhannagar, Barrackpore and Siliguri after the change of guard in the state. It had not only helped in reducing crimes and improved the law and order situation, but also helped in better traffic management that brought down the chances of accidents.

The police also organise “Traffic Safety Week” every year and engage school goers to make people follow the traffic norms. Students were found urging pedestrians to use zebra crossing to go across a road, making people follow traffic signals and not to honk unnecessarily.