Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 9: Minister of State for Transport Sunil Kumar Sharma today called for strict adherence to the Traffic Rules for smooth flow of traffic and urged upon the concerned authorities to ensure safety of people besides making concerted efforts for restricting fatal road accidents.
The Minister said this while addressing the gathering at the inaugural function of 28th Road Safety Week being organized by Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) J&K in collaboration with Traffic, Police Department, educational institutions and other stakeholders here. The theme of this year’s Road Safety Week is “Your safety, secures your family – Be cautious on Roads”.
Principal Secretary, Transport Department Bipul Pathak, IGP Traffic S A Watali, IGP Jammu Danesh Rana, Transport Commissioner Vineeta Gupta, Managing Director, J&K State Road Transport Corporation J S Sofi and Regional Transport Officer Ashwani Kumar Khajuria were present on the occasion.
The Minister exhorted upon the concerned departments to organize traffic law awareness camps in educational institutions including schools, colleges and universities for the benefit of students.
He said the main objective of observing this week is to create road safety awareness among general masses for reducing the scale of fatal accidents that occur frequently in hilly and accident-prone districts of the State.
Earlier, the Minister also flagged off an awareness rally comprising hundreds of school and college students, representatives of Traffic Police, driving institutes and automobile dealerships.
Meanwhile, awareness regarding road safety rules, inauguration of Point Of Sale (POS) and bikers rally marked the inaugural of Road Safety Week observance in Kathua.
A rally of bikers was organised which was flagged off by Additional Deputy Commiss-ioner Kathua Dr Bharat Bhushan in the presence of RTO Kathua Amarjeet Singh. Starting from RTO Office rally comprising Traffic Police Personnel, volunteers of NCC and NSS, college students and general public passed through main chowks of the town and culminated at PWD Rest House Kathua.
At the outset, Point Of Sale (POS) machine was inaugurated by ADC Kathua to facilitate cashless transaction. One POS will be kept at Lakhanpur check post where the entry tax and fines can be paid through crecdit/debt cards while other will be used at RTO Office Kathua for payment of fees for availing various services. Even fines can also be paid through online transaction.
The Motor Vehicle Department Samba also organised motor-bike rally from New Bus Stand Samba to 17 Miles Restaurant. The rally was flagged off by Deputy Commissioner Samba, Sheetal Nanda and Additional SP Samba Raja Adil Hamid.
Similar rally was also organized in Reasi, which was flagged off by DDC Ravinder Kumar. A camp was also organised in which guest lectures were delivered by officers and officials of MVD to mark the beginning of Road safety Week.
Reports said that DIG Udhampur-Reasi Range, Surin-der Gupta flagged off a cyclothon rally from DC Office complex to mark the beginning of Road Safety Week. DDC Niraj Kumar and SSP Dr Shailendra Mishra also participated in the cyclothon, which after passing through the main market, culminated at Mini Stadium.
In Doda district, Motor Vehicle Department in collaboration with Traffic Police organized a rally, which was flagged off by DDC Bhupinder Kumar while as in Rajouri district, SSP Suleman Choudhary in the presence of Additional SP Mohammad Yusuf, ARTO Jugal Kishore and Motor Vehicle Inspector Ranjeet Bhasin flagged off an awareness rally from Old Bus Stand. In Poonch district, the Additional Deputy Commiss-ioner Gurvinderjeet Singh and SSP Poonch J S Johar inaugurated the Road Safety Week at Government Girls Higher Secondary School Sheesh Mahal by flagging off rally in which school children from different educational institutions participated.
Various functions were also held across Kashmir valley to observe Road Safety Week. In Srinagar, Traffic Police in collaboration with RTO Kashmir organized an inaugural function in which Deputy Commissioner Dr Farooq Ahmad Lone was the chief guest.
RTO Kashmir, SSP Traffic City Srinagar, senior district officers, NSS volunteers, representatives of various NGOs and other concerned attended the function. On the occasion, Deputy Commission flagged of a car rally which passed through various parts of the city.
In Ganderbal, a rally was flagged by Deputy Commissioner Tariq Hussain Ganai in the presence of SP Ganderbal, ARTO and other officers while as in Baramulla, Deputy Commis-sioner, Dr Nasir Ahmad Naqash, ARTO and other concerned officers stressed for adopting necessary road safety measures for averting avoidable road accidents and loss of precious human lives.
In Bandipora, Additional Deputy Commissioner Khursheed Ahmad Sanai presided over a function organized to mark Road Safety Week. SSP Bandipora, ARTO, transporters and general public participated in the function. A sumo rally was flagged-off by the ADC from General Bus Stand Nusoo. In Budgam, a rally was flagged-off by Deputy Commissioner Budgam, Mir Altaf Ahmad to mark the inauguration of Road Safety Week.
In Shopian, a function was presided over by ADC, during which he stressed on need of inculcating awareness about traffic rules and guidelines for better road safety measures. He also flagged-off a car rally which passed through various areas of the town.
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