Owing to the strenuous efforts of the District Administration to make the district accident free, the district has witnessed at least 32 per cent decline in road accident fatalities in January to October 2019 as compare to the same period in the last year.Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Hans, who was chairing the Road Safety Committee Meeting here on Monday, said that under the “Punjab Vision Zero Accident” mission the district administration has been doing all the efforts to bring the road fatalities to zero.Deputy Commissioner said that the development came after the district administration has deployed enforcement at the all the nine accident black spots, identified by the District Road Safety Engineer (DRSE) in the district besides adopting other road safety measures. DRSE Om Parkash had identified four accident black spots in Moga City area while two each in Smalsar and Ajitwal and one such spot was identified in Baghapurana. Accident black spot is a place where road traffic accidents have historically been concentrated.Deputy Commissioner has also directed the police officials to ensure implementation of the new Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act (MVA), 2019 and intensify the challan drive in the district.According to the new MVA rules, the penalty of driving without a helmet has been increased to Rs 1,000 with licence disqualification for three months from the previous Rs 300. Wrong parking penalty has been increased to Rs 500 from Rs 300.
For triple riding, the fine has been increased from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000, while for speeding, the penalty is between Rs 1,000-Rs 2,000 depending on the category of the vehicle.Deputy Commissioner also asked the concerned officials to prepare a list of the requirement of signage boards in the district which will be installed soon to ensure the smooth flow of traffic on the roads.He also directed the representatives of the National Highway Authorities of India (NHAI) to fix all the faulty and potholed roads besides doing road markings on the district roads.Deputy Commissioner also directed the Municipal Corporation officials to intensify their campaign to catch the stray animals from the roads and directed the concerned Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) to ensure that all school buses complying with the safety guidelines under the Safe School Vahan.During the meeting, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Anita Darshi, Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) including Narinder Singh Dhaliwal (Moga), Ram Singh (Nihal Singh Wala) and Swaranjit Kaur (Baghapurana), Inspector Dilbag Singh, District Education Officer (Secondary) Jaspal Singh Aulakh, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) SK Bansal and Davinderpal Singh among other officials were present.