Though more than 30,000 lives have been lost in road mishaps in the last 10 years, the State Government is yet to allocate a budget for road safety fund. In fact, at least 10 people are killed everyday in road accidents in the State even today.
According to a research conducted by two State-based NGOs, Forum for Prevention of Road Accidents (FPRA) and Sankha Dhwani Rasta Surakhya Samiti (SDRSS), more than 9,000 accidents occurred last year which killed 3,700 people.
“The rate at which people are killed in road accidents seems to imply that human life has no value. But it has failed to make any impact on the State Government,” said Vikas Mahapatra, Secretary, FPRA.
Citing the example of Tamil Nadu which provides Rs 65 crore to its Road Safety Fund every year, he called for a similar set up in the State.
“Besides bringing up a Road Safety Policy, there is an urgent need for setting up a Road Safety Fund. At least 50 per cent of the fines collected from the traffic violations should be allocated to the fund and utilised for improving the traffic infrastructure, signals and other road safety programmes,” he added.
While the Odisha Road Safety Society (ORSS) under the chairmanship of Transport Commissioner has generated Rs 13.39 crore during the last five years, Rs 2.5 crore has been spent on deploying home guards and hiring of veichles for Regional Transport Offices which are not related to road safety programmes, Mohapatra claimed.
“More people die due to road accidents than epidemic in our State. There is a complete lack of enforcement of traffic rules and regulations,” said Gobind Chandra Senapati, president of FPRA and a former Police DG.
He also called for vesting police officers with compounding powers across the State under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
Currently, the power lies with police only in big cities such as Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Berhampur and Puri.
