Obey traffic rules: Biren to citizens
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR
Imphal, April 22 2018:
Chief Minister N Biren Singh has urged the public to cooperate and extend support to the Government in containing road accidents by simply obeying the traffic rules while driving and crossing roads.
He made the appeal in his message to be broadcast on April 23 on All India Radio and Doordarshan Kendra Imphal in connection with the observation of the 29th Road Safety Week (April 23-30, 2018) under the theme 'Sadak Suraksha - Jiban Raksha' .
The Chief Minister expressed concern that there was steep rise of 67.9 per cent in the number of road accident fatalities during 2017 when compared with 2016.The Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety (CoRS) has seriously viewed the matter and directed the State Government to formulate an action plan to reduce accident fatalities to 50 per cent by 2020, the Chief Minister said.
Stating that the State Government has started taking up necessary steps to check use of fake driving licenses, N Biren informed that 10,000 driving licenses (manual/form 6) and smart card driving licenses had been seized/verified so far, and out of which 400 driving licenses were found to be fake licenses.
Further investigation is being carried out by the CID Crime Branch to book those involved in the fraud, he added.
The Chief Minister further said that the Government is also trying to contain re-registration of stolen vehicles purportedly brought from other States.
In this regard, a dedicated Anti Theft Vehicle Cell has already been established under the overall in-charge of IGP Zone-I, he said while adding that the Cell is verifying documents of pre-used vehicles in collaboration with the Transport Department before allowing registration.
Furthermore, in compliance with the Supreme Court orders of May 12, 2015 and January 21, 2016, the State Transport Department had already notified the guidelines relating to protection of Good Samaritans on July 22, 2016 requesting all stake holders as well as general public to strictly abide by the guidelines framed by the apex Court, he said.
The Chief Minister also urged the public to evacuate the accident victims to the nearest hospitals without any fear of risk.
The State Health Services Department has been advised to make available its ambulances to accident victims through a common toll free number which must be adequately publicized besides taking up necessary steps to complete and make operationalisation of the Trauma Care Centres which have been approved by the Union Ministry of Health, he added.
Biren said that the Government had issued an office memorandum on April 17, 2018 wherein Government officials had been advised to provide their official vehicles to victims in shifting them to nearby hospitals when any accident occurs near Government offices or if any official happens to come across any road mishap while they are travelling.
The Chief Minister also appealed to the people of Manipur to obey traffic rules, road regulations besides other laws relating to helmet/seat-belt/mobile phone etc.
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