BHUBANESWAR: In its efforts to create greater awareness about road safety among the people, the State Transport Authority (STA) on Tuesday launched the 2nd edition of the National Road Safety Short Film Festival that will be held in Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Berhampur and Angul this year.
Film entry for the festival was declared open with November 17 being the last date of submission. The festival aims to promote increased engagement in road safety cooperation in the state and across the nation to reduce road accidents and fatalities arising out of them.
“Every life is precious. Road safety is a high-priority area of our government. Short films can be an effective tool of communication for spreading the message on road safety,” said Commerce and Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu.
DGP Sunil Kumar Bansal said people have become insensitive to road accident deaths owing to regular occurrence. “Road accidents and fatalities are like a slow haemorrhage. Overspeeding is the root cause of many road accidents. Enforcement and awareness are being carried out but there is still something missing and we must be sensitive to road accident deaths in a bid to curb the menace,” he said.
Transport commissioner Amitabh Thakur said the festival will offer an unbiased platform to storytellers willing to share their ideas on road safety through the audio-visual medium. “Like last year, the festival will have two categories - Odia and non-Odia languages. Subtitles in English are a must for all the entries. The festival will offer cash prizes worth over `8 lakh in different categories,” he said.
The winners will be selected by a panel of judges from the film industry and professionals/luminaries from different walks of life. During the launch ceremony, 16 eminent jury members were introduced.On the occasion, Sahu along with DGP, Transport commissioner and the jury members launched the poster of the 2nd edition of the short film festival.
Bothra, who was the Transport commissioner when the film festival’s 1st edition was launched, said no initiative can succeed without people’s participation.