By Samreen Kausar
It has become very important to make people aware about national road safety in the Indian subcontinent. Emphasizing and accentuating people about the need of safe roads have been the major objective of the country. Going by figures, approximately one lakh people are killed every year in road mishaps. An effective implementation of traffic rules and spreading awareness can increase the importance as well as the necessity of road safety awareness.
Throwing light on the capital city of Odisha, Bhubaneswar, popularly known as the ‘Smart City’ of the country, too is a major victim of road mishaps. On one end where the traffic authorities have put in great efforts to control the flow of traffic at densely populated areas like AG square, Power House square, Rupali square, etc, to name a few, there are a few such road conjunctions which need instant strict and positive actions. One such is the Siripur square, also known as the OUAT square. A few weeks ago the conjunction point witnessed the death of a student of OUAT and this had gathered a huge response from the public as well as the traffic authorities.
“We are extremely sorry for the unfortunate death of the young girl by violation of traffic rules. The pedestrians as well as the vehicle drivers both should be completely alert while they are on road”, said the ACP, Bhubaneswar Commissionerate Traffic. He further adds, “We have put up automatic signal posts and have hired a traffic police person at the OUAT square but it’s very disappointing to see that public haven’t cooperated us in any way. Yet we are trying to tighten our actions towards traffic violations”.
The Central and State Governments have joined hands and started the “Road Safety Week” Campaign at various states and cities to promote road safety measures in various communities, educational institutions, work places and roads. The government authorities aim at decreasing and completely removing road mishaps by encouraging road travellers to follow traffic rules.ACP, Bhubaneswar Commissionerate Traffic further adds, “With the start of Road Safety Week Campaign, we have taken a step to educate the public, students and the youth to join hands and make roads safer to use. Many communities distribute leaflets along with flowers to explain methods and necessity of road safety means.” The state government was seen to actively participate and promote this campaign in January with a huge positive response from the residents of the city.