Chhatrapur: Traffic snarls in Ganjam district have gone out of control, causing umpteen number of difficulties for commuters. Despite regular sittings of Road Safety Committee here, none of the decisions and orders is being executed, a report said.
According to sources, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) does not seem to adhere to the orders issued by the District Collector as well as to decisions taken by the Road Safety Committee.
It was known, 596 road accidents have occurred at different places of the district over the past ten months, out of which 313 persons have died. Out of this 79 persons died on NH-16 alone, 54 persons on other national highways (NHs), 140 died on state highways (SHs) and 40 died on district roads.
On the other hand, in sharp contrast to this, transport authorities have cancelled driving licenses of 2684 persons on grounds of driving rashly, on wrong route, without seatbelts and helmets, district Road Transport Office (RTO) sources informed.
Moreover, a fine of Rs 4,06,400 has been collected from wrongdoers, on the grounds of traffic violations. Furthermore, Rs 3,54,500 has been collected from 1428 persons for not having insurance of their vehicles, the sources added.
Even as the local administration imposes heavy penalty on commuters for any sort of traffic violation postimplementation of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019, it turns a blind eye to substantially low quality of roads throughout Ganjam district, a report said.
Although violation of traffic rules is being handled with an iron fist from Sunday making allowance for a three-month’s extended relief on documents; nobody seems to bother about the existing traffic snarls here.
According to sources, lack of coordination between pavement walkers and vehicle drivers, inadequate public awareness on traffic rules and rash driving by youngsters during rush areas of the town are said to be the main causes of the growing menace.
Hundreds of heavy vehicles, passenger buses, cars, ambulances and bikes pass through these highways every day. Allegedly, there are no safe traffic control arrangements at busy and snarled spots.
Given that the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019 wanted to deter individuals from violating traffic rules, it has introduced heavy fines for drunken driving, driving without licenses, driving without authentic documents, rash and dangerous driving and over-speeding.
The Act also promises to protect those people who render emergency medical or non-medical assistance to a victim of an accident, from any civil or criminal liability. Minimum compensation for death or grievous injury due to hit and run has been moved up substantially.
