Thiruvananthapuram: An intensive bid to reduce road accidents drastically across the country is on. The central government has directed States to implement road safety measures strictly. In line with this, the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) of the Kerala government has decided to make its officials answerable if they fail to reduce the rate of road accidents within their jurisdiction at least by 25 per cent.
An order by Transport Principal Secretary K R Jyothilal states that this would be applicable to all enforcement officials and road safety officials in the department.
All roads in the state have been allocated among the enforcement officials and road-safety officials on the basis of black spots (accident-prone areas). The number of accident fatalities at these spots within their jurisdictions needs to be brought down. If the officials are not able to reduce the rate by at least 25 per cent, a strict directive has been given to mark adverse entry on the confidential records. This is applicable to all field officials, including Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector (AMVI), Motor Vehicle Inspector (MVI), Joint Regional Transport Authority (RTO), and RTO.
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Officials who fail to meet the set mark would earn a 'D grade' in the service records and this would also affect promotions.
Order follows SC panel's directive
The directive was issued as the number of road accidents in Kerala has been increasing at an alarming rate. The chairman of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety had directed the state transport department to take the requisite steps to bring down the road accidents and the fatality rate in accidents by at least 25 per cent by the end of the year. The Chief Secretary was also instructed to report on the action taken.
Kerala, which was ranked fifth in the number of road accidents in 2018, stood at the fourth spot by 2019, as per the figures of the Union Ministry of Transport.
The state transport department has decided to take stringent action against violations. The Director-General of Police has also been directed to file a case and slap a fine for offences such as speeding, not wearing helmets, and not putting on seat belts. The DGO also has to submit district-wise figures on these.
248 black spots
There are a total of 248 black spots in Kerala. Of these, 172 were identified by the Public Works Department, while the remaining were by the MVD and the police department. A survey is being conducted to identify more accident-prone areas.
In case of potholes in areas marked as black spots, the PWD has also been directed to ban the contractor concerned for at least a year. This is in accordance to a stern directive by the chairman of the Supreme Court panel.
As reported earlier the panel had directed the Kerala government to reduce road accidents by 50 per cent by curbing overspeeding by making use of real-time camera tracking technology.
