The National Road Safety Week, which was being observed here, concluded on Sunday.
Southern Range IG Amitav Thakur, Ganjam district Collector Prem Chandra Choudhury, SP Ashish Singh, Higher Education Regional Director Dr laxmikant Tripathi, RTO SK Biswar and SK Dalai graced as guests.
Stating that accidents are occurring in tribal-dominated areas due to lack of education, Thakur urged upon youths to obey traffic rules strictly while driving. The Collector requested mediapersons to take road accidents as a sensitive issue and promote traffic rules in their news writings.
Singh said traffic rules should be a part of education and physically-unfit persons should not be issued driving licences.
“Out of every 100 persons, 28 are facing accidents in India. In Odisha, a total of 10,542 road accidents occurred and 4,303 persons were killed during the last year. In Ganjam district, 128 persons were affected and 92 people were killed between April and December 2016. A total of 2,902 driving licences were cancelled. Steps are being taken to demolish all hoardings and repair black spots parts of different roads,” said RTO Biswal.
On the occasion, all persons present vowed not to drive motorbikes without using helmets. Chhatrapur PS IIC BP Patra and Ramba PS IIC PK Das wee felicitated for cancelling 43 and 36 Dls and collecting fines of `1,45,650 and `1,01,000, respectively, from offenders.
Among others, police officers like KS Sethi and SK Tripathi and Constables like Ahyut Mallick, Hari Bandhu, K Srinivas Patra, Sarada Prasad Jena, Balakrushna Patra and Shankar Majhi were felicitated.