Una, November 20 - Every year thousands of people lose their lives in road accidents, the main reason for which is human error as well as human carelessness. Therefore, with the aim of making the general public aware about road safety and traffic rules, a special public awareness campaign is being run by the Road Safety Cell of the Transport Department in the entire state. The objective of this campaign being run from 20 to 30 November 2023 is to reduce road accidents in the near future so that Himachal Pradesh can be made an accident free state. This information was given by Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri at the inauguration of the awareness campaign regarding road safety in village Bathu of Haroli Assembly.
The Deputy Chief Minister said that about 3000 road accidents occur every year in Himachal Pradesh and due to legal complications related to the police department, people avoid taking the people injured in accidents to the hospital, hence the state government has decided that the people who take the injured in accidents to the hospital will The person will be given Rs 5,000 and no case will be registered against him in the police department.
He said that in order to make the youth self-reliant through self-employment, the government will give 50 percent subsidy on the purchase of e-vehicles and the government will give a subsidy of Rs 50 to 70 thousand (depending on the size and capacity of the vehicle) for a fixed period of the next 4 years. As per Rs.) will be taken on monthly rent and they will be used in place of the vehicles being discarded in various departments of the government. He said that on the demand of truck operators, the state government has decided to collect the dues of trucks till March 31 without interest and penalty. He clarified that the present government has not increased the tax on all types of vehicles and tax on all types of vehicles is being collected at pre-determined rates only. The Deputy Chief Minister said that the Transport Department has been authorized to pay the challans issued by ARTO and Head Constable of the Police Department on the spot so that people do not have to make rounds of the court to pay the challan.
Earlier, the Deputy Chief Minister had released four types of information booklets and seven pamphlets based on various road safety topics, a booklet of the Accident Bureau of 2022, and two books namely Road Safety Signs and Significance and Road Safety Information and Guide Significance for vehicle owners and drivers. Also released a banner based on the theme of a noble person and the golden hour.
People will be made aware during the 10 day campaign
He told that on November 20, awareness will be raised not to drive under the influence of alcohol and other intoxicants. On November 21, bus drivers and conductors will be made aware of their responsibilities.
On 22nd November, new drivers and on 23rd November, drivers and conductors working in school buses will also be made aware about road safety. General enforcement activity will be conducted on 24th November and awareness campaign regarding information about road safety signs and their meaning will be conducted on 25th November.
On November 26, awareness will be raised about the necessity of seat belts and helmets and the harm caused by using mobile phones while driving. On November 27, the police department will run an awareness campaign against overloading in buses and goods vehicles. On November 28, an awareness campaign will be run about Good Samaritan and Golden Hour.
On November 29, students of senior secondary schools and colleges will be made aware about road safety under the supervision of local police station in-charges. On November 30, a special awareness campaign will be run about over-speeding, violation of Motor Vehicles Act and rules and not driving by teenagers.
During this special campaign, the District Regional Transport Officer will carry out road safety awareness activities at the level and in collaboration with Police, Public Works Department, Education, Health Departments in their respective districts. Apart from this, all the District Regional Transport Officers will also make the instructors and their trainees of the driving training schools of their districts aware and motor vehicle dealers will also be included in this campaign.
During this period, the Education Department will organize various programs in 139 colleges and 1978 senior secondary schools to make children aware about road safety, such as essay writing competition on road safety, slogan writing competition etc.
During the campaign, the Health Department will provide training on Trauma Care, Emergency Response (Emergency Response) to doctors, paramedics and staff nurses so that they can provide timely treatment to road accident victims. This workshop will be conducted by the CMO at the district level.
Block level training workshops will be organized by the Public Works Department. In these workshops, engineers, architects and road construction contractors of the Public Works Department will be given information about road construction. He said that apart from this, people will also be made aware about road safety through various social media.
He informed that all the District Deputy Commissioners will hold a review meeting on road accidents and road safety awareness on 28th November and after discussing the causes and prevention of road accidents in their respective districts, necessary suggestions will be submitted to the Road Transport Department for engineering, enforcement and other options. Will send to the cell.
On this occasion, District Congress Committee President Ranjit Singh Rana, Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee Secretaries Ashok Thakur, Pawan Thakur and Satish Bittu, District Congress Committee OBC Cell President Pramod Kumar, Haroli Block Congress Committee President Vinod Bittu, Congress Party's Legal SAIL President Virendra Mankotiya, Haroli Block Mahila Congress President Suman Thakur, Gram Panchayat Bathu President Surekha Rana, Haroli Block Industrial Association President Rakesh Kaushal, Mehatpur Industrial Association President CS Kapoor, Himachal Drug Producers Association President Sanjay Sharma Industry Director of the department Rakesh Prajapati, Additional Deputy Commissioner Mahendra Pal Gurjar, Additional Director Tilak Raj Sharma, Joint Director Anshul Dhiman, Additional Commissioner (Road Safety) of Transport Department Naresh Thakur and Deputy Director Omkar Singh, retired IAS officer Rakesh Sharma and officials of many other departments. And employees and a large number of area residents were present.