BHUBANESWAR: Perturbed over rising deaths due to road accidents, Odisha Police has proposed to create 500 posts of traffic personnel to monitor traffic management and ensure road safety in the State on a priority basis.
The proposed posts included one DSP, 118 Sub Inspectors (SIs), 72 Havildars and 309 Constables. After creation of the posts, the same will be distributed among 32 Police Districts and Commissionerate as per need.
A senior police official said the annual financial implications for the posts will be around Rs 23.11 crore and once created, these posts will also meet the requirement of 36 proposed mobile patrols to control accident on National Highways (NHs).
“The supervisory post of DSP is required in Crime Branch for proper monitoring of all aspects of road accidents and coordination with 32 district SPs. After meeting the requirement of NHs, the balance staff will be distributed among the districts,” he told The New Indian Express.
Additional DG of Police (Modernisation) has sent the proposal to Additional Chief Secretary of Home Department for creation of the posts of traffic police as per the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) norms following the direction of Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety.
At a recent meeting on road safety, Chief Secretary AP Padhi had expressed concern on the rising trend of road accidents and fatalities in Odisha as observed by the apex court panel.
He had asked the officials to pull up socks as there is an increase in fatalities by 11 per cent in 2018 over 2017 in the State following non-compliance of some directions of the SC Committee.
The Chief Secretary instructed the officials to take steps for compliance of all directions of the Committee within seven days and take all possible steps for reduction of fatalities in the State as per the target fixed by the Committee.
Though the Committee had set specific target for detection of offences, it was observed that the enforcement performance of many districts was not up to the mark. Districts like Jharsuguda, Khurda, Angul, Balangir, Puri, Boudh and Dhenkanal were low in enforcement activities despite very high growth in fatalities.
DGP Dr RP Sharma assured that all the police districts will achieve the target assigned for detection of violation of traffic laws by the end of the year. He is slated to attend a meeting on road safety at New Delhi on Thursday.
Over 2500 persons have been killed in road accidents in Odisha between January and May this year. While 4790 deaths in road mishaps were recorded in 2017, 5313 fatalities were reported last year.