Rising death cases due to road accidents has put the State Government in a tizzy.
Commerce and Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera has urged all authorities concerned to take appropriate measures to bring down the fatality rate.
Chairing the first meeting of the State Road Safety Council at the State Secretariat here on Monday, the Minister laid stress on taking stringent action against people involved in rash and drunken driving, implementation of engineering technology, enforcement of the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court-appointed committee and immediate treatment of accident victims to reduce deaths in the State.
APC Gagan Kumar Dhal, DGP RP Sharma, Commerce and Transport Department Principal Secretary G Srinivas, Excise Secretary SK Lohani, Transport Commissioner Anil Kumar Samal and members of the Truck and Bus Owners Associations participated in the meeting.
The Minister emphasized on holding district-wise monthly meetings under the chairmanship of the respective Collectors. He emphasized on giving medical treatment to accident victims within an hour of the road mishap.
Notably, 1.49 lakh people in India and 5,315 in Odisha lost their lives in traffic-related accidents in the year 2018 while over 5,000 received severe injuries in Odisha during this period.
A Supreme Court-appointed committee has asked the State governments to reduce accident-related death rate by 50 per cent by the year 2020. The court has also asked to reduce fatality on road by 10 per cent every year against the previous year.
Behera sought cooperation from the officials, members of the Safety Council and NGOs working in the field in bringing down the death rate and reducing number of road accidents.
Twin City Police Commissioner Satyajit Mohanty told the meeting that as many as 21 ‘black spots’ have been identified between Pitapalli and Jagatpur on the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar State Highway.