Bhubaneswar, Aug 31: The Supreme Court panel on Road Safety decided to hold a review meeting on the status of road safety in Odisha on Sept 8 when it noticed that the Odisha government has been repeatedly ignored its directive which says to conduct State Road Safety Council meetings twice a year. In this regard, on reviewing a letter provided by the committee, the state government has asked for detailed reports on the action taken against miscreants under the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 from all the Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) in the state.
On Aug 23, the State Transport Commissioner, Chandra Shekhar Kumar had written a letter to the Principal Secretary of the State Commerce and Transport Department where he informed that the Committee is disappointed to know that the state government did not held the second meeting of the State Road Safety Council in 2015 and has made a case for the meeting of the Council to be held at least twice a year. Earlier, the Transport Commissioner had requested the concerned minister to fix a date for holding the next meeting of the Council. Also the Transport Commissioner gave required instructions to the RTOs to strictly abide by the guidelines of the apex court’s Road Safety Committee and order suspension of the driving license of a person for a minimum period of three months under section 19 of Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 if he or she is found driving at a speed exceeding the specified limit, passing off the red lights, overloading goods carriage and carrying passengers in goods carriage, driving vehicle under the influence of liquor and using mobile phone while driving.
On March 22, 2016 the Road Safety Committee of the Supreme Court had issued a letter to all states and Union Territories, where it pointed out that mere suspension of license and levy of fine would not be adequate to reduce cases of drunken driving. The Committee also informed that wrong carriageway driving would come under dangerous driving under Section 184 of the MV Act. It would also fall under Section 279 of the IPC. Hence, the police should prosecute the offender in every such case and seek maximum punishment as prescribed under the required provisions.
Every year, more than 4000 people die in road accidents in Odisha. Despite a number of road safety awareness programmes taken up by the state government, the awareness level among the people is very low.
