Seven die of road accidents every day in Punjab

Chandigarh, Mar 6 (UNI) As many as seven people die of road accidents every day in Punjab, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh said in the Vidhan Sabha today.

Nearly 5,356 people had died in 8,867 road accidents from January 2004 to December 2005, he informed.

Easy availability of driving licenses without proper tests, rash and negligent driving by untrained drivers of commercial vehicles, lack of proper infrastructure on roads, over speeding and wrong overtaking were some of the reasons which were admitted by the Chief Minister for the large number of accidents in the state.

Replying to a question asked by MLAs Jugal Kishore Sharma of Congress, Capt Balbir Singh Bath (Shiromani Akali Dal) and Surjit Singh Dhiman (Independent), he stated that the state government had taken several measures including introduction of highway patrolling, traffic aid posts, traffic help lines and traffic education cells to check the accidents.

Capt Singh said 142 tractor trolleys were involved in these road accidents from January one, 2004 to December 31, 2005.

He informed the house that at present 40 retrofitted highway patrol vehicles were operational round the clock on accident-prone stretches of national and state highways which were fully-equipped for relief and rescue. Twenty-four such vehicles would be added shortly, he said.

Transport Minister of the state Mohinder Singh Kaypee, in response to another question said the Punjab Roadways was running in losses.

The minister, however, said that the government was taking steps to regulate the functioning of the Punjab Roadways to minimise its losses. ''Transport is an essential service for the people and there is no question of profit or loss,'' he said, when MLA Manpreet Singh Badal of SAD asked for the details and reasons for the losses incurred by the state-owned transport.

UNI PS CS BS1705