While presiding over the Prize Distribution function of Poster-Slogan Competition ‘Road Safety Campaign 2019’ organised by the popular daily of the State, Himachal Dastak at Jawala Ji in Kangra district today, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that it was a laudable endeavour of the newspaper to organise such event to sensitise the society regarding road safety. He said that only law was not sufficient to check the increasing number of road accidents in the state. He said that it is essential that a mass campaign is launched to sensitise and educate the society regarding road safety. Chief Minister said that being a hilly state, the cases of road accidents were very large and most of the road accidents in the state were fatal. He said that it has been found that about 90 percent road accidents were due to human error and carelessness. He said that the Central Motor Vehicle Act advocates stringent action against careless ad negligent driving. But only this was not sufficient to curb road accidents, as we need to educate the society regarding road safety and traffic rules, he added.Jai Ram Thakur said that it has been observed that it was vital that a mass moment was launched to make any social cause a success. He said that all the programmes such as polio eradication campaign, literacy campaign, sanitation campaign etc. were great success because of the people’s participation. He said that now time has come that we launch a mass moment against educating people regarding road safety. Chief Minister said that students can emerge as brand ambassadors of Road Safety as they can motivate and persuade their parents to drive carefully and obey traffic rules.
He said that the campaign should not become a ceremonial event and it should be result oriented and impactful. He expressed hope that the campaign launched by Himachal Dastak would go a long way in educating the society regarding road safety and traffic rules. He also congratulated the daily for its glorious professional journey of about eight years. He also congratulated the winners of the poster and slogan competition on the occasion. Editor Himachal Dastak Hemant Kumar while welcoming the Chief Minister and other dignitaries said that the main objective of organising this event was to sensitise the youth regarding road safety. He said that the daily has earlier also launched a campaign regarding water conservation in the state. Bureau Chief Himachal Dastak Rajesh Mandhotra said on an average 1200 people lose their life in road accidents per year in Himachal Pradesh. Urban Development Minister Sarveen Chaudhary, Health Minister Vipin Singh Parmar, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Virender Kanwar, Industries Minister Bikram Singh, MLA and Deputy Chairman State Planning Board Ramesh Dhawala, MLA Hoshiyar Singh, Chairman Kangra Central Cooperative Bank Dr Rajiv Bhardwaj, Managing Director Himachal Dastak K.P. Bhardwaj, Deputy Commissioner Kangra Rakesh Prajapati, Superintendent of Police Vimukt Ranjan were present on the occasion among others.Winner of Poster-Slogan Competition on ‘Road Safety Campaign 2019’ was Aryan Dhiman DAV Public School Una, second prize was won by Precilia Cambridge International School Kullu and third prize was won by Vasvi Ghamta DAV Senior Secondary Public School Saraswati Nagar Sawada Shimla.