Bhubaneswar: Bishnupada Sethi, Principal Secretary Commerce and Transport has asked the Additional DGP Crime Branch to strengthen the enforcement activities by Highway Patrol teams.
Highway Patrol has been rolled out in five vulnerable stretches of roads in the State having 36 mini stretches with the objective to reduce road accidents and fatalities.
It is the duty of the Highway Patrol teams to detect traffic rule violations and shifting of road accident victims to the nearest hospital, Principal Secretary Mr.Sethi said.
However, the monthly performance report of the Highway Patrol teams indicates that during the month of March 2022, 866 cases of traffic rule violations have been detected by the 36 patrol teams. This indicates the poor performance of the teams, he pointed out.
From the information received, it is observed that 20 teams have not detected even a single case of traffic rule violation in the entire month and 6 patrol teams have detected single digit cases of traffic rule violation during the entire month.
“It is a fact that all the selected stretches are vulnerable and a lot of cases of traffic rule violation must be occurring there. It indicates that the Highway Patrol teams are not functioning properly,” the Principal Secretary said.
Further, Mr.Sethi said, performance of Highway Patrol teams was discussed in the review meeting on Road Safety which was held on 20 April, 2022 under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary.
In this meeting, it was decided that, DG of Police will take steps to enhance the performance of Highway Patrol teams.
Secondly, to assess the effectiveness of Highway Patrol, the ADG Crime Branch was requested to provide the accident and fatality data for the year 2020 and 2021 of the stretches where Highway Patrol has been rolled out.
“The data received from the CB indicates that there has been an increase in fatalities by 3.3 per cent during 2021 compared to 2020 on these stretches, in spite of rollout of Highway Patrol,” pointed out the Principal Secretary.
Therefore, as decided in the review meeting held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary, steps may be taken for intensifying enforcement through the Highway Patrol teams, he asked.
The equipment available with the Patrol Teams like: speed laser guns, breath analyzers etc. should be used properly for detection of traffic rule violations. Reduction of accidents and fatalities is the top priority of the Government, he pointed out.