Taking serious concern of the ever-increasing road accidents in the state, the Punjab Government has initiated an elaborate drive to ensure that the road safety norms are being properly implemented. For this purpose, a Joint Action Group has been formed, in which departments of Transport, Education, Forest and Police would work cohesively. School Education Department has been entrusted upon a special responsibility to properly maintain school buses and their use following the norms of Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 and Supreme Court rulings.
It was arrived at in a high level meeting of Punjab State Road Safety Council, which was held today at Punjab Bhawan in the chairmanship of Mr. Ajit Singh Kohar, Transport Minister, Punjab. The meeting was attended by Mr. S.K. Sandhu, Principal Secretary/CM, Mr. D.S. Bains, Principal Secretary/Home besides senior officers of Transport, School Education, Forest, PWD (B&R). The Minister apprised the officer that Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal is very much concerned about the road safety measures. In the meeting, it was decided that every school bus must be equipped with the speed governor with its maximum speed limit of 40 kmph. The driver of the school bus must possess license of heavy vehicle with 5 years of experience and the school bus be painted in yellow colour. The school buses must also bear the name and the contact number of the school in bold letters. These buses must also carry first aid boxes. Directions to curb the practice of over loading in the buses were also passed. It was also decided that the services of a driver, who was challaned two times, would not be hired for school bus. Medical check up of the school bus drivers would also be got done time to time.To curb the accident at unmanned railway crossings, a joint working committee consisting of Secretary/PWD B&R, Secretary/Transport and I.G./Traffic has been constituted to review the progress in this regard. To effectively execute the work of road safety, the fund position was also discussed in the meeting.
Mr. Kohar said that instructions were also issued to all the district transport authorities to implement the decisions of the transport department. He said that all the DTOs would be held responsible for any violations of the road safety norms and departmental action would be initiated against him.Dr. Kamaljit Singh Sohi, Deputy Chairman, Punjab State Road Safety Council also presented his proposals in the meeting. A concise note based on the proposal of Dr. Sohi would be forwarded to GoI for further action.Mr. Pawan Kumar Teenu, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Sports Department was also present in the meeting.