Praful Chander Nagpal
Fazilka, July 18
The district administration is yet to take up the road safety measures as 58 precious lives have been lost in road accidents in the district from October 2011 to June 2012. The administration has reportedly failed to complete the proceedings to constitute a district-level road safety council even as an year has passed since Fazilka was declared a district.
District Transport Officer Gurtej Singh says, "The copy of notification of the council is yet to be obtained from transport authorities." He admitted that the ex-officio members have not been included in the committee so far.
The Graduate Welfare Association, Fazilka, has obtained information in this regard. As per the information released by the Punjab Police, there are about 400 accident black spots in Punjab out of which 14 fall in Fazilka district.
Those in Fazilka district have been identified at Balluana (Abohar-Malout Road), Alamgarh (Abohar-Sriganganagar Road), Hanumangarh bypass chowk (Abohar), Seetogunno bypass (Abohar), New Hanuman Mandir Tikoni (Fazilka), T-point (Near Malout Chowk Fazilka), Sanjeev Cinema Chowk (Fazilka), Khuai Khera (Near Fazilka Co-operative Sugar Mills), Jalalabad bus stand, Arianwala Chowk (Jalalabad), Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk (Jalalabad), Tiwana Mour (Jalalabad), Nimwala Chowk (Jalalabad) and village Ghubaya in Jalalabad.
"Nothing much in terms of engineering interventions, removal of encroachments in black spot areas has been done in order to improve road safety," said Navdeep Asija, technical advisor and member of the governing council, Punjab State Transportation Society.
Traffic management does not seem to be the priority of the district administration. As per official sources, in the last six months (Jan 2012-June 2012) the traffic police have issued challans to only 4,666 in Fazilka district.
Interestingly, no challan was issued for drunken driving while only 34 persons were penalised for overspeeding. The district police is not equipped with electronic gadgets like alcometer and speed guns to curb drunken driving and overspeeding.
"We have been frequently issuing challans to the drivers jumping the red light and have removed black films from the glasses of vehicles. Besides, traffic awareness seminars are also organised in schools and colleges twice a week," claimed District Traffic In-charge, inspector Gurpiar Singh.
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