Nagpur: Now, Member of Parliament from Lok Sabha will be chairman of district road safety committee (DRSC) that will comprise members of legislative assembly, mayor, district collector, superintendent of police, representatives from government organizations like NHAI, state public works department, stakeholders, regional transport officer etc“The committee members will chalk out and execute plans to reduce the number of road accidents and deaths in Nagpur district,” said Nagpur city RTO Sharad Jichkar.The transport commissioner’s office has sent the RTO list of members to be nominated to the DRSC. The members will monitor the nodal officers’ work, analyse serious accidents and take effective steps to reduce the number of accidents, said the RTO.The formation of the committee comes in the wake of Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety expressing displeasure at the increasing number of road accidents and deaths in the country.Meanwhile, the Union ministry of road transport and highways will observe the 29th Road Safety Week from April 23-30 this year against the usual practice of holding it in January.“The theme this year is ‘Sadak Suraksha — Jeevan Raksha’. The district authorities with the traffic police and regional transport office should undertake road safety measures and submit reports to the ministry of road transport and highways by May 31,” said the RTO.Though the Central government will observe the Road Safety Week from April 23 to April 30, the notification of the Union transport ministry has asked the state to observe a fortnight till May 7.The notification issued by the transport commissioner (TC) directed the RTO to chalk out awareness programmes along with traffic police, state’s public works department, NHAI, education department and health department.Apart from rallies, the commissioner has asked the RTO to conduct awareness programmes and hold essay, painting competitions in schools and colleges.Traffic experts ridiculed the decision to hold the Road Safety fortnight during summer season. Ravindra Kaskhedikar, secretary of Jan Akrosh — a city-based NGO actively involved in creating traffic awareness — said the government should rethink about the schedule as summer holidays have already started in most of the educational institutions. “The appropriate time for the event is January,” he said.According to Raju Wagh, founder of Jeevan Suraksha Prakalp — a city based NGO working to create traffic awareness — the timing is wrong as schools in the city are closed and colleges have examinations. “It will be difficult to find children and youngsters for traffic related awareness programmes,” he said.Kaskhedikar also pointed out the need to make the awareness programmes during the fortnight innovative.

Stay updated with all the Latest Nagpur headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.