Bhubaneswar: A preparatory meeting in connection with observance of Zero Fatality Week from 1st to 7th December 2023 has been held at Lok Seva Bhawan today under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena. This will be observed by Commerce and Transport Department with involvement of Stakeholders of Home (Police ) Department, Road Owning Agencies, H & FW, Education & H&UD Departments etc.
In the meeting held, Development Commissioner-Cum- ACS Anu Garg , DGP Sunil Kumar Bansal, Principal Secretary, Commerce and Transport Department Usha Padhee , Principal Secretary, RD & I & PR Department Sanjay Kumar Singh, Transport Commissioner-cum-Chairman, STA Amitabh Thakur, other officers of C & T Department, NHAI officials were present whereas Collectors & SPs and district level functionaries of all districts attended the meeting through OSWAS platform.
Initiating the discussion, C&T Department Principal Secretary Padhee presented details about road accident scenario in Odisha. There were 8,939 Road accidents, 4,178 fatalities and 7,898 injured occurred during the year 2023 from January to September. There is 2.84 % increase in accidents in 2023 (Jan to Sept) and 4.89 % increase in fatalities (Jan to Sept) as compared to 2022 of the same periods whereas there was 11,663 i.e 6.19% increase in road accident in 2022 as compared to 2021 and 7.5 % increasing fatalities in 2022 as compared to the year 2021.
The vision of Zero Fatality Week is to reduce further the rate of increase in road accident and fatalities. The State Government is committed to address this issue and with aim to Zero Fatality during 1st to 7th Dec 2023, the Govt. in C &T Department has given instruction to all Districts to prepare action plan for each district in response to SOP given to all RTOs.
As per information, in the Zero Fatality Week observed in last April-2023, there was 33 % decrease in accidents and 14.6 % decrease in fatalities during the same period in 2022. Boudh, Rayagada, Sonepur, Bhadrak, Malkangiri ,Nayagada and Sambalpur district are top performing districts that observed 100% reduction in fatalities during that period.
Chief Secretary advised all Collectors to achieve better than the previous time, get all government offices and employees involved and to work out activity plan. He also said to involve School students, NGOs, Civil societies, SHGs in this campaign. BDOs to conduct meeting at GPs & Panchayat Samiti level to get participation of PRI members.
SHG members those who have got scooters under ‘Mission Shakti Scooter Yojana’ and are learners to be sensitized to have less prone to accidents. Road safety Engineering plan, Behavioural changes and Enforcement should be top priority in observance of Zero Fatality week, he urged. The effort for Zero fatality should continue even after the observance.
Chief Secretary also focused that as coming December to February are picnic months, we should prepare for zero fatality and also pollution free picnic as there is possibility of pollution of environment due to use of large quantity of polyethylene bags at different picnic spots of the State.
Participating in the discussion, D.C-Cum ACS Garg said that all Stakeholders to visit Trauma care centers in nearby hospitals so that we can ensure our preparedness and save life of victims during golden hour of accident occurred. Necessary publicity and awareness drive will be carried out by the I&PR Department to sensitize the public through print, electronic media and social media to reduce road accident and fatality. It was also discussed in the meeting that accident victim, should be promptly attended to whether in private and govt facility available.
Detail enforcement schedules has been chalked out by the C& T department action against violations like drunken driving, Helmetless driving, use of mobile phones while driving, over speeding, triple riding, insurance, illegal parking, wrong side driving etc.
Awareness plan prepared on publicity of Citizen Sentinel App to report violations, Road safety awareness through driving training schools and DTIs, Broadcast road safety awareness messages through various network services, mobile vans to spread road safety measures, awareness programmes in schools and colleges during morning assembly, involvement of private stakeholders like truck, bus, dumper owner associations to raise awareness about road safety was discussed. Best performing organisations to be acknowledged and awarded.
NHAI, RD, R&B authorities has been instructed to hold monthly meeting at least once in a month for solutions to problems like removal of potholes, repair of barriers, improvement of roads, and identification of black spot prone to accident etc. All stakeholder departments have
been sensitize their roles in details.
