The Hindu : New Delhi News : Promoting road safety

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Promoting road safety

Alarmed over increasing negligence of road safety rules, the Delhi Traffic Police organised a “Safety Day” at the Hasanpur DTC depot this past week.

The awareness programme conducted by Road Safety Cell Assistant Commissioner of Police Rajinder Singh and Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic, East District) Jagtar Singh drew attention to the growing number of accidents on the Capital’s roads.

The workshop was attended by 200 drivers recruited by the DTC for driving the fleet’s new low-floor buses.

Dispelling myths that speeding helps drivers save time, the trainers drove home the need for adhering to safety measures, emergency precautions and the necessity of cautious driving. Videos about road safety precautions were shown by the Traffic Department team while a team from Tata Motors focused on emergency safety precautions through their audio-video tapes.

Briefing drivers about the impact of careless driving, the trainers said nearly 2,000 people are killed in Delhi every year in road accidents. The menace of careless driving is compounded by the fact that Delhi has about 60 lakh vehicles.

Pointing out that 95 per cent of the accidents are caused by careless driving habits, the Traffic Department said one person dies every six minutes in a road accident in this country.

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

Burning calories for a cause

Bollywood hunk John Abraham was in the Capital over the weekend urging Delhiites to work out with him in order to burn calories for a noble cause.

Taking time off his busy acting schedule, John talked, smiled, jumped, flexed his bulging biceps and even screamed his lungs out. He had the crowd literally jumping on its feet as the young, middle-aged and even elderly folks cavorted and the calories they burnt were highlighted on a gigantic screen. The actor urged reluctant participants to head for their local gyms.

“I have been coming to Delhi since my modelling days. By the grace of God I am before you again. Now you have to be sporting enough to burn calories with me. Those who haven’t jumped should go to the gym,” said John with his characteristic smile.

“Delhi,” John added, “is a special place. It is known for its beautiful girls and tough boys.” Those words acted like magic for the youngsters who started jumping with unbridled joy.

In the end, the grand total of calories burnt by John and the crowd boiled down to more than 200,000! The soft drink company that organised the event announced that it would hand over a cheque for an amount commensurate to the calories burnt to a non-government organisation.

Madhur Tankha

JNU through the lens

“Life in JNU”, a photo exhibition focusing on students’ engagement with Jawaharlal Nehru University through photographs, concluded over the weekend. The JNU Photography Club in association with the Foreign Students’ Association had organised the event.

The three-day exhibition started on May Day showcasing photographs taken by the students, depicting life inside the JNU campus. A total of 180 photographs taken by 19 photographers were put up for exhibition as well as for sale.

“The response was overwhelming,” said Sreedeep, a photo enthusiast and part of the organising team. “We didn’t expect such a large number of people to turn up because of the summer vacation, but students as well as professors showed a lot of interest. We plan to organise it annually from this year,” he added.

There seemed no constraints on creativity or artistic expression with photographic content portraying a range of subjects including dhabas, Holi celebrations, protests, construction sites, the morning and evening JNU landscape or even a solitary paper cup.

Staff Reporter

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