Deputy Commissioner, Kathua Ramesh Kumar today chaired a meeting of District Road Safety Committee to review Traffic regulation and response mechanism in the district.At the outset RTO Kathua Amarjeet Singh who is the member secretary of the committee apprised the meeting that there are 65692 vehicles registered in the district of which 5320 vehicles were added this year. Besides, being located on the National Highway about 3000 vehicles also enter the district daily on an average from outside the state, he informed.Giving details of deaths and injuries in road mishaps in the district during current year, he said an amount of Rs 7.82 lakh has so far been sanctioned and disbursed out of the Passenger Welfare Fund to those killed/injured in the accidents. He also apprised that 25 driving license have been suspended this year for over speeding and overloading by Regional Transport Authority Kathua.DC Kathua reviewed the action taken on the decisions of the last meeting and asked the concerned to adopt a multi-pronged strategy for road safety awareness , enforcement, engineering and emergency care to improve safety on roads as recommended by The National Road Safety Policy 2010 and directions of Supreme Court of India. Deputy Commissioner directed the Motor Vehicle Department and the Traffic Police to organize Road safety awareness programs in collaboration with the Education, Health and other departments to sensitize the youth and professional drivers of Passenger service vehicles about road safety rules.
The Chief Education Officer was directed to issue directions to all the schools to strictly follow the guidelines of the Supreme Court regarding maintenance of the School buses and installation of speed governors and not to allow the students without license or helmet to use motorbikes or any other mode of vehicle.The DC directed the RTO, Traffic department and the Local Police to check the overloading in passenger vehicles particularly during the peak hours. He directed National Highway Authority of India to ensure Highway Patrol, provision of crane, signboards, blinkers and signboards specifically for identified block spots (accident prone areas) and cleaning of bushes/vegetation on national highway. He further directed for immediate repair of the potholes and damaged dividers on the National Highway which could be a cause of accidents. He also directed the NHAI to remove the encroachments from the pedestrian pathways and service roads with the assistance of concerned area Magistrates and SHOs and install hoardings displaying speed limit and emergency numbers along the Highway.He also highlighted the need to sensitize people about latest directions of Supreme Court regarding protection from harassment to good smartians or persons who evacuate the injured from accident spots. The DC called upon the CMO and other departments to display the latest directions of Supreme Court at hospitals.
ACR Kathua was asked to identify land for the construction of wayside amenities, while Traffic department was directed to install regular nakas during school hours to discourage the practice of driving without helmets check over speeding and overloading. The DC asked for compounding of all school and commercial vehicles running on illegal LPG Kits.The DC also issued directions to SDMs to mobilize Tehsildar and Naib Tehsildars to enforce the traffic regulations and book the offenders for violation of Motor Vehicles Act, in their respective jurisdictions for which powers have already been delegated to them by Transport Department.Taking cognizance of report of damaging of median/divider on national highway, the DC directed Police and NHAI authorities to ledge FIR against the offenders.CMO Kathua was also directed to maintain ambulances in ready mode in all the locations/blocks to meet any emergency and augment the blood bank facility in coordination with the Red Cross Society.The Municipality was directed to identify locations for parking zones to avoid any traffic congestion in main market areas of the town.The Deputy Commissioner also directed all the members to make coordinated efforts to ensure safety on roads and prompt emergency care.ASP Kathua, Chief Medical Officer Kathua, Chief Education Officer Kathua, Executive Engineer PWD (R&B) Kathua, CEO Kathua Municipality, EO Lakhanpur Municipality, representative of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), Excise & Taxation and NYK were present.