Punjab assembly concerned over increase in road mishaps

Chandigarh, Mar 12 (UNI) Members of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha today expressed concern over the growing number of road accidents in the state and called for immediately taking safety measures.

The matter was raised during zero hour by Jagdish Sahni (BJP) who made references to yesterdays accident in Gurdaspur district involving a bus belonging to his transport company in which 10 passengers lost their lives and another 26 were injured. He demanded that the state government should immediately disperse the requisite compensation to the next-of-kin of the deaceased who all belonged to poor families.

At this juncture Sukhpal Singh Kharia (Cong) while also expressing concern pointed out that as per official figures 3363 persons died and 4430 were injured in 5208 road accidents in the state during last year. He demanded to know what had become of the governments proposal to form a Road Safety Council for prevention of accidents as there was total chaos on NH-I and other highways in the state due to the increasing number of vehicles.

Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon too expressed his concern with the members and asked Transport Minister Master Mohan Lal about the proposed Road Safety Council.

Master Mohan Lal said that the Bill for the establishment of the Council would be brought before the House in the current session. He said that it has been proposed that the Council would have a corpus fund for giving an immediate relief of Rs two lakh to the families of the deceased.

The Minister said that the government had just one vehicle interceptor in the state and there was a demand for 11 from the central government. The interceptors were needed in the state to check over speeding, over loading, drunken driving and other traffic offences, he added.

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