In a significant stride towards reducing road accident fatalities, Punjab Transport Minister S. Laljit Singh Bhullar, on Thursday, outlined an aggressive and multi-pronged strategy to enhance road safety across the state and stressed for zero-tolerance approach to traffic violations and introduced several critical interventions.
Presiding over the 15th meeting of the Punjab State Road Safety Council (PSRSC) here at Punjab Bhawan, S. Laljit Singh Bhullar announced mandatory monthly review meetings to assess departmental performance. He warned that departments failing to meet prescribed targets would face strict administrative action.
The Cabinet Minister expressed dissatisfaction over the action taken reports (ATR) of various departments, saying that "if any deficiency is found in the action taken report of any department during the monthly meeting and the department does not meet the set target then strict action will be taken against the concerned officials."
The Health Department has been specifically directed to address staff shortages in trauma centers and ensure comprehensive medical equipment availability to maximize survival rates of road accident victims. As a pioneering initiative, the Transport Department has decided to launch a pilot CCTV surveillance project in five high-risk (red zone) districts namely Patiala, Rupnagar, SAS Nagar, SBS Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib.
This project is set to be progressively expanded across Punjab, said the Cabinet Minister, adding that an online challan system similar to Chandigarh should also be considered to efficiently penalize traffic rule violations. In a landmark decision, the Transport Minister has approved the release of Rs.55 crores for establishing the Sadak Surakhiya Force (SSF), which has been equipped with 144 Highway Patrol Vehicles.
He said that preliminary assessments indicate a remarkable 45.5% reduction in road accident mortality rates since the SSF's inception. An additional Rs.7 crores has been sanctioned for procuring electronic equipment to support this force. On the suggestion of the Cabinet Minister S. Laljit Singh Bhullar, the desicion pertaining to independent third-party audit of all rectified black spots in the state has also been taken in the meeting.
He said that an independent agency dealing with Road Safety matters such the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre (TRIP Centre) of IIT Delhi (which is a Centre of Excellence for Road safety under WHO), PEC, Chandigarh, Road Safety Auditors empanelled with Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India (Government of India) will be engaged to conduct an independent third-party audit of all rectified black spots in the state to measure the outcomes and effectiveness of the rectification exercise.
He said that third-party audit of rectified black spots and also evaluation of the identification methods and process are required to measure the outcomes and whether the rectification exercise has brought the desired result or not. During the meeting, major policy decisions have been taken including Training of officers of Road-owning Departments (SDO & above) in Road Safety Audit from reputed institutions such as IIT Delhi, IIT Madras and CRRI, Pune, etc.; conducting the National Level Seminar on Safer Roads for Everyone (SAFE) Scheme in Punjab in upcoming month; mapping of Police Station Jurisdictions under e-DAR and restructuring of Posts in the Lead Agency on Road Safety, Punjab by Finance Department.
Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Mr. D.K Tiwari, Additional Chief Secretary Transport; Mr. R. Venkat Ratnam, Director General, Lead Agency; ADGP (Traffic) Mr. A.S Rai; STC Mr. Jaspreet Singh; Mrs. Babita, CEO, State Health Agency; Mr. Sudhir Naithan, Manager (Tech), NHAI; Mr. NP Sharma, CE, PWD; Mr. Rajinder Rai, CE, Local Government Department; Additional STC Mr. Sukhwinder Kumar and Automobile Engineer Mr. Ranpreet Singh Bheora.