Baripada: District Magistrate and Chairman of Regional Transport Authority, Mayurbhanj Vineet Bhardwaj on Saturday slapped a show-cause notice on the Project Director, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), Balasore for remaining absent at a District Road Safety meeting recently.
The DM slapped the notice on PD NHAI for remaining absent in District Road Safety Meeting and non-maintenance of NH properly.
The District Road Safety meeting was held on April 25 at 4 PM in the Facilitation Centre of Collectorate, Mayurbhanj, Baripada and the NHAI Project Director again remained absent in the meeting despite being intimated in advance about the date, time and venue of the meeting by the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Mayurbhanj.
Principal Secretary of Commerce & Transport Department Bishnupada Sethi and Transport Commissioner Arun Bothra are pressing hard for implementation of road safety measures in District level to minimize road accidents as well as fatalities rate adhering to the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court Road Safety Committee, Bhardwaj said in his letter.
Hence, important discussion, and reviews are being made in the District Road Safety Committee (DRSC) for rectification of Black Spots, Un-authorized median openings, repair of crash barriers, correction of super elevation angles, potholes etc. on the roads which are coming under the NHAI, he said.
“Due to your absence in the meeting, your representative fails to provide adequate data about the road safety measures undertaken by the NHAI authorities,” said the District Collector.
While reviewing the progress of road safety measures particularly in Dwarsuni Ghat, it is found that actions as expected at NHAI level on road safety are not being implemented properly in spite of instructions given in the last meetings, he pointed out.
“Your regular absence in the DRSC meeting signifies that you are not at all serious about road safety. The house believes that negligence of NHAI is the one of the major reasons for road accidents. Therefore, you are asked to show-cause as to why your higher authority will not be intimated to initiate disciplinary action against you as deemed proper for your negligence on road safety issues,” read the notice issued by the RTA, Mayurbhanj.
The NHAI Project Director has been asked to reply to the show-cause notice within seven days of receipt.