BENGALURU: Objecting to the functioning of the Karnataka State Road Safety Authority (KSRSA), the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report pointed out that bad condition of roads and hazards, including encroachments, led to road accidents.
The CAG report on the Authority, which was tabled in both the Assembly and Council on Wednesday, pointed out that the Authority established in 2018 is yet to frame rules to discharge its duties. They have utilised hardly Rs 10 crore out of Rs 480 released to them, it stated.
Joint physical inspection of selected roads showed various kinds of road hazards, including encroachments. Twenty such hazards were noticed per kilometre in BBMP limits and seven to nine on national and state highways, it pointed out.
CAG for setting up road management bodies
It recommended setting a target for road management authorities to clear road hazards in a time-bound manner. CAG objected to nearly 70 per cent of vacancies in senior positions of inspectors of motor vehicles (IMVs) that has impacted the overall quality of checks, including testing and issuing of driving licences and fitness certificates to vehicles.
“A large number of vehicles were plying on roads without renewal of theirs RCs or FCs. Investigating authorities were not capturing the surface conditions, visual conditions and even environmental factors in their databases to analyse the cause of road accidents.
Even the highway patrolling introduced was diverted for other purposes and lacked trained personnel,” it stated. It said the health department did not prepare any action plan to set up trauma care centres in 22 districts. Accident victims did not receive timely medical care in 90,000 instances since April 2014 that can be attributed to either base location of ambulance being far away or pre-trip getting delayed.