Bhubaneswar: Taking serious note of rise in numbers of road accidents, related fatalities and traffic rule violations in the State, Principal Secretary Transport & Commerce Bishnupada Sethi on Thursday asked all Collectors, Superintendents of Police, DCPs and Regional Transport Officers to conduct a special enforcement drive for one month in all districts from tomorrow to make people aware of this menace.
In a letter Mr.Sethi said as reported by the State CID & Crime Branch during the year 2021 there is an increase in fatalities by about 7.24pc compared to 2020.
During 2021, while as many as 10,984 road accident cases were reported in the State in which 5081 people died, 9782 people were injured, he said.
There has been a steady increase in the number of fatalities in Odisha due to road accidents from 3931 (year 2014) to 5081 (year 2021), an increase of about 29% during the period.
It was the direction of the Supreme Court Committee to reduce fatalities by 50% by 2020 taking the year 2014 as base, he said.
He said according to the information received from the CID & Crime Branch on road accidents for the year 2021 and 2020 there is growth in fatalities by more than 25 pc in the districts like Gajapati, Jharduguda, Boudh and Rayagada.
More than 200 fatalities have also occurred in the Districts such as Keonjhar, Ganjam, Sundargarh, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Khorda and Cuttack.
“These Districts should take required steps for reduction of accidents and fatalities,” he said.
The Principal Secretary said vide this Department letter no. 726 Dt. 31.01.2022 it was directed to conduct a special enforcement drive for one month throughout the State by the RTO and Police with the objective to detect traffic rule violations and thereby reducing accidents and fatalities.
However, it could not be implemented properly due to elections for Panchayati Raj Institutions and ULBs.
He further directed to hold meetings of the District Road Safety Committees regularly and hold discussion as per the guidelines issued vide this Department letter no. 2968 Dt. 23.03.2021.
He also asked officials to go for stringent enforcement against speed violation, drunken driving, helmet law violations, use of mobile phones while driving and penalize those found committing infringements of traffic rules.
The Collectors are requested to submit a report indicating the reason within fifteen days as to why the fatalities have increased in the districts.