A proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs to have highway policing on all national highways (NH) across the country is hanging fire for paucity of funds. The Ministry for Road Transport and Highways is unwilling to back the proposal citing financial implications as well as Constitutional provisions, wherein policing is a State subject.
The States are also reluctant to fund the project, saying they are overstretched financially. Some States have also expressed reservations over permanent liability that will accrue due to additional manpower recruitment for manning the highways.
“Modeled on the Maharashtra State Highway Police Force, the MHA wanted the Ministry of Roads and Highways to instate highway policing on all national highways but we have not reached a consensus with the States,” said an official from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
“Advanced discussions are underway with two States —Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to start a pilot study, which we should be concluding very soon,” he said. In the wake of increasing accidents on national highways, Government wants to have highway policing to bring in more order and curb frequency of accidents.
India has the highest number of road fatalities in the world. Government data shows that highway accidents increased by 10.4 percent between 2003 and 2012. While 12,7834 accidents took place in 2003, the numbers increased to 149732 in 2011. They dipped slightly to 142694 in 2012 but were still over 10 per cent higher than figures reported nine years earlier.
A report by the transport research wing, Ministry of Roads Transport and Highways, States that national highways accounted for 30 per cent of total road accidents and 36 per cent of total number of people killed in 2010. State highways accounted for 24.5 per cent of total accidents and 27.3 per cent of people killed in road accidents in 2010. “Highway police are needed to keep check on over-speeding and rash vehicles. They will also keep a check on overloading of vehicles, which are also menace on highways, as they are responsible for a chunk of accidents,” said the official.
“The proposal is to have policing vehicles with tracking devices for highway patrolling. These tracking systems would make it easy to ensure that the police reach places of accidents and extend relief measures to the accident victims in emergencies,” he said. Besides monitoring traffic movement on the highways, the State highway police, will also be required to conduct surveys of accident prone spots on highways, to help the Government take corrective measures to check accidents.