New Delhi, Dec 18 : Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said most road accidents are linked to behaviour of people, who often disregard safety norms, and asked Lok Sabha MPs to undertake road safety campaigns in their constituencies.
Lamenting that every year 5 lakh road accidents take place and 1.80 lakh lives, mostly of young people, are lost, Gadkari urged Speaker Om Birla to hold a separate discussion on road safety measures to get suggestions from MPs to deal with the problem.
“I have to say this with profound grief that road accidents are linked to human behaviour. There is no regard for road safety rules. About 1.80 lakh lives are lost every year in road accidents which is more than the lives lost in any war or Covid pandemic. Young people are losing lives,” the minister said during Question Hour in the Lower House.
Replying to a question by BJP MP Mukeshkumar Chandrakaant Dalal on road safety, Gadkari said the age group of 18-34 years account for 66 per cent of road accident deaths.
He said even though the ministry is undertaking campaigns to educate and sensitise people about road safety norms, but not much improvement is being seen.
Gadkari asked MPs in the House to undertake road safety programmes in their constituencies to sensitise people. He also asked the speaker to hold a separate discussion on the issue.
To this, Birla also nudged members to undertake targeted campaign for road safety in their respective constituencies.
“I’m hopeful that in the next session all MPs will come with positive suggestions on road safety and we can have a discussion. We all have to work together,” Birla said.
The minister said that the government has started a scheme, under which a person who takes any road accident victim to a hospital will be given Rs 25,000 and will be called ‘rah-veer’ (Good Samaritan).
Also, the government will reimbuse up to Rs 1.50 lakh to the hospital for 7 days’ treatment of road accident victims.
Gadkari said the government has fixed 7,000 blackspots and allocated Rs 40,000 crore for it.
Blackspots are identified by the government based on accident reports received from the concerned state governments on frequency of accidents with fatalities and grievous injuries. (PTI)
