State level committee meeting on road safety concludes

Raipur, TNINS 

In the State level committee meeting on road safety, Chief Secretary Mr. Amitabh Jain said that coordinated efforts by the Transport Department and all the concerned departments are necessary to prevent road accidents. He has given instructions to the officers to ensure necessary action under the action plan for comprehensive management of road safety. The Chief Secretary was addressing the officials in the meeting of the State Level Committee constituted for road safety at Mantralaya, Mahanadi Bhavan here today.

The Chief Secretary has said that the incidents should be analyzed to know the causes of road accidents. Mr. Jain instructed to organize road safety committee meetings regularly at the district level and to continuously review the progress of the action being taken in relation to road safety. In the meeting, measures to control road accidents, road safety awareness and ambulance delivery to accident-prone areas, mock drill and pre-exercise to ensure proper treatment to the accident-injured and to make necessary measures in advance to ensure road safety were discussed. Detailed guidelines were given to the officers. Director General of Police Mr. Ashok Juneja also gave necessary guidelines to the officers regarding road safety.

In relation to the road safety scenario, Mr. Sanjay Sharma, officer of the Inter-Departmental Lead Agency (Road Safety), said that road accidents are decreasing due to road safety public awareness and various road safety efforts. Regarding the overall road safety scenario in the meeting, it was informed through a presentation that, one-fourth of the state's accidents took place in Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur in the year 2022 . Apart from this, road accidents have also happened in Rajnandgaon, Raigarh, Korba and Balodabazar. Similarly, in the year 2023, the maximum number of accidents occurred in Balodabazar, Dhamtari, Mungeli, Balod, Kabirdham and Jashpur districts in the months of January to March 2023. Traffic education and public awareness programs are also being organized to avoid road accidents. Corrective works are being done in black spots, junctions, signals etc. identified by all road agencies. Continuous training is being imparted to the officers and employees of various departments related to road safety. In the meeting, instructions have been given to the collectors to conduct regular meetings of all the district road safety committees. The health department has ensured that ambulances reach accident-prone areas and provide proper treatment to the injured during immediately after the accident. Similarly, necessary guidelines were given to the Urban Administration Department to ensure proper lighting arrangements in accident-prone areas, removal of encroachments in signboards and hoardings and parking places, prevention of accidents caused by stray animals. The Excise Department has been instructed to put up flags related to public awareness around all country and foreign liquor shops in the state.

In the meeting, the officers and employees of the agency were trained by the Transport, Health, Public Works Department and other construction departments for the implementation of the Integrated Road Accident Database for the analysis of the causes of road accidents. Training is also being given to the drivers. This training program will be carried out continuously. Free facilities are being made available in all medical colleges and district hospitals for the treatment of the injured in road accidents. In this meeting organized through video conferencing, the collectors of the districts presented information regarding the road safety scenario of their districts. The Secretary, Transport Department, Mr. S. Prakash, Secretary, Health Department, Mr. Prasanna R., Secretary, Tribal Welfare Department, Mr. D.D. Singh, along with the collector and superintendent of police of the concerned districts, police and transport department and health officials participated in the meeting.