Supreme Court panel pulls up Delhi govt on road safety

New Delhi: A Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee on road safety pulls up Delhi government for its gross failure in implementing road safety measures in the national capital.

The committee has expressed severe displeasure for not creating road safety fund as directed by it.

Noting that the road fatalities in the city had reduced by 0.4 per cent in 2017 as against the targeted 10 per cent, the SC committee has directed that Delhi government to take strict measures to reduce road fatalities by 10 per cent by the end of the year.

According to the Delhi Traffic Police data, the  city had reported as many as 6,456 accidents in the yea 2017 in which 1,505 persons were killed.

The panel also pulled up the Delhi government for failing to set up a road safety fund in violation of the SC order in November last year.

“The panel is unhappy to note that the UT Road Safety Council has only met once in 2017 and directs the UT to hold council meeting at least twice a year to take stock of the road safety issues. The government has also not set up a lead agency as directed by the SC,” read the panel’s communication to the Delhi government and traffic police.

Among various other steps, the government was directed to set up a district road safety committee. This committee shall conduct analysis of accidents and fatality data in respective districts and identify vulnerable road segments.

The committee will be responsible for identifying causes of road accidents and make recommendations to the law enforcement agencies on traffic safety measures and strategies in areas of engineering and emergency care to be taken in case of road accidents.