Bhubaneswar: The Odisha chief secretary, AP Padhi, said that the rural police should step up their drive against speed driving and driving without helmet and seat belt as they have been vested with power for compounding of traffic and driving offences.
Padhi, while reviewing the progress of road safety measures over a video conferencing with collectors and superintendents of police of police of all districts, here on Friday, said directed the district collectors and SPs to intensify the enforcement along the enforcement. He asked them to send monthly report on the enforcement activities and reduction of fatalities in road accidents to state head quarters.
The Director General of Police Dr Rajendra Prasad Sharma instructed the SPs to ensure 100% enforcement of helmet use and speed check on highways.
The Transport Commissioner Madhusudan Padhi appraised that the accident fatalities in during March 2018 has shown a declining trend in comparison to 2017. There were around 487 accident fatalities during March 2017 which has reduced to 466 during 2018. This is expected to further come down during coming months because of intensification in enforcement activities, he added.
It was decided in the meeting that online e-challan system would be introduced for collection of fines against the violations which would reflect the antecedents of the driver concerned. The punishment for the present violation will be determined taking into consideration his past records.
The chief secretary directed the NHAI to take up a special campaign for corrective measures at the black spots on national highways passing through Odisha. The NHAI engineers were asked to complete the work in a time bound manner. The departments of rural development and roads & buildings were also asked to complete the corrective works in the roads being maintained by them.
Review revealed that 10 districts of the State are more accident prone. These are Angul, Jharsuguda, Khordha, Koraput, Bargarh, Kandhamal Keonjhar, Gajpati, Sambalpur and Sundargarh. In these districts the number of deaths during 1st quarter of 2018 has increased to 646 than that of 473 during 2017. The state as a whole has recorded total number of 1387 accident fatalities during 1st quarter of 2018 against a total death of 1218 during same period of 2017.
Agriculture Production Commissioner Gagan Kumar Dhal, Additional Chief Secretary Home Asit Kumar Tripathy, Police Commissioner Y.B.Khurania, Secretary Rural Development Bishnu Prasad Sethi, Secretary Works Nalini Kanta Pradhan, Special Secretary Commerce & Transport Manoj Kumar Mishra, Chief General Manager NHAI Dharmananda Sadangi along with senior officers from concerned departments participated in the discussions. Collectors, SPs along with district level officers provided necessary data through video conferencing.
