No action on many decisions taken in SRSC meeting
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 16: In a testimony of non-serious approach towards continuous increase in tragic accidents, several Deputy Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir have failed to meet the deadline fixed for submission of District Road Safety Plans. Moreover, there is no follow-up action on many decisions taken in the last State Road Safety Council meeting including improvement work on many accident probe roads.
In the 5th meeting of the State Road Safety Council held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary B B Vyas on August 17, 2017 the directions were issued to all the 22 Deputy Commissioners to consult all stakeholders particularly the Traffic Department in the formulation of the District Road Safety Plan, which should be finalized and submitted by September 15, 2017.
Though the deadline has expired yet several Deputy Commissioners have yet not submitted the District Road Safety Plans to the office of Transport Commissioner in utter disregard to the directions issued by the head of civil administration in the State, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
Some of the Deputy Commissioners have even not convened meetings of District Road Safety Councils for preparation of District Road Safety Plans what to talk of their finalization and submission to the Transport Commissioner, they said, adding “this clearly indicates that no seriousness has yet been paid towards increase in tragic accidents and subsequent loss of precious lives”.
“It is a matter of concern that the J&K State Road Safety Policy was approved in the middle of last year but till date District Road Safety Action Plans have not been finalized in many districts of the State”, sources regretted, adding District Road Safety Plans are imperative as every district has its own difficulties vis-à-vis road safety like condition of roads, topography and availability of manpower either of Motor Vehicle Department or Traffic Department and such difficulties can be removed only when the same are properly identified in consultation with all the stakeholders and placed before the State Road Safety Council for necessary action.
“Even State Road Safety Council meetings are not convened strictly as per the time-frame fixed by the Governor N N Vohra”, sources said while informing that Governor while chairing a specially convened meeting at Civil Secretariat on February 14, 2015 had issued directions for holding meeting of Council in every quarter to review the implementation of decisions taken in the previous meetings and issue necessary directions to the concerned departments.
It is pertinent to mention here that 4th meeting of the State Road Safety Council was convened on August 2, 2016 while as the 5th meeting was convened after more than one year— on August 17, 2017. During this period, a number of tragic road accidents took place in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir claiming numerous lives besides rendering hundreds of passengers incapacitated but those at the helm of affairs in the Government does not find it appropriate to pass directions for convening of meetings of the Council periodically.
“Even the District Road Safety Committees start convening meetings only when any tragic accident takes place in any part of the State and invites sharp criticism from various quarters”, sources further regretted while disclosing that as per the directions of the Governor District Road Safety Committees are required to meet on monthly basis.
In the 5th Road Safety Council meeting direction was also issued by the Chief Secretary to the Public Works Department for preparation of a plan on the safety of all roads by September 15, 2017 and starting improvement works on accident prone roads on the basis of data related to road accidents.
“However, neither the PWD has submitted any plan till date nor initiated improvement work on such roads”, sources informed.
When contacted, Transport Commissioner Saugat Biswas confirmed that he has not received District Road Safety Plans from all the Deputy Commissioners of the State within the time-frame fixed in the 5th meeting of Road Safety Council. “May be they (Deputy Commissioners) are in the process of finalization”, he added.
In response to a question, he expressed ignorance about any action plan submitted by the PWD in compliance to the directions issued by the State Road Safety Council.
“There is also either no follow-up action or dilly-dallying approach on other decisions taken in the 5th Road Safety Council meeting”, sources said while disclosing that Transport Department has not started a website for hosting all details about the issues related to road safety. Even those Deputy Commissioners, who have convened meetings of the District Road Safety Committees, have not uploaded the minutes on their respective websites.
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