The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : YSR for steps towards greater road safety YSR for measures to ensure greater road safety

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 29, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

YSR for steps towards greater road safety YSR for measures to ensure greater road safety

Special Correspondent

Shoots down proposal to hike penalty for not wearing helmet Shoots down proposal to hike penalty for not wearing helmet

HYDERABAD: The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has suggested a comprehensive approach towards road safety in the State, particularly on the highways, to prevent loss of life in accidents.

Expressing displeasure at the failure of the road safety committees in rectifying the shortfalls in road safety, the Chief Minister on Thursday asked civil and police officials to revive the committees.

He also felt that the imposition of the helmet rule in isolation would not lead to safe journeys on the roads in the cities. Several other measures had to be strictly adopted to increase road safety like construction of road dividers, improved junctions and construction of speed breakers.

Coordination sought

Unless departments like Roads and Buildings, Road Transport Authority, Police and Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation synchronised their work, commuters would not benefit, he insisted.

The suggestion of the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Hyderabad, Tejdeep Kaur Menon, to increase penalty for not wearing helmets, was shot down by the Chief Minister who asked her to stick to counselling methods.

The Chief Minister is said to have frowned at the report presented by her, which stated that despite the helmet rule being imposed in the city, the city witnessed 3, 525 accidents last year leading to 419 deaths and 3, 741 injuries.

The meeting was attended by the Minister for Transport, S. Santosh Reddy, special chief secretary, A.K. Sharma, the DGP, Swaranjit Sen, the City Commissioner of Police, Dinesh Reddy, the Joint Transport Commissioner, C.L.N. Gandhi, and APSRTC MD, M. V. Krishna Rao.

Buddhist conference

At a review meeting officials informed Dr. Reddy that the administration would gear up for `Kalachakra', a Buddhist conference, to be held from January 12 to 14, 2006 and attended by the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The Tourism Minister, J. Geeta Reddy and member, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, Lama Lobzang attended the meeting. Ms. Geeta Reddy said all Buddhist pilgrimage centres in the State were being given a facelift for the festival.

The Chief Secretary, Mohan Kanda said no stone would be left unturned in making the Andhra Pradesh experience comfortable for the over two lakh Buddhists who were expected to be present at Amaravathi in Guntur district. He said a Special Officer would be stationed at the venue for coordination with officials from different departments. The General Manager, South Central Railway, D.N. Mathur, said he would provide as many special trains as necessary before and after the festival.

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