CHENNAI: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s (CAG) report of 2018, which was tabled before the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Thursday, has blamed the transport, highways and police departments for road fatalities in the State.
Poor enforcement of the motor vehicle regulations, lapses in driving licence tests, insufficient allocation of funds in repairing black spots on Highways and lack of coordination between police and transport department are the reasons listed by the report.
Rash and negligent driving contributing to 77 per cent of road accidents indicate that drivers were not tested adequately, which in turn contributed to widespread ignorance of non-observance of traffic
rules.
About 60 to 65 per cent driving licence applicants passed the driving tests in automated testing tracks from June to November 2018, as against 93 to 96 per cent during manual inspection in the corresponding period previous year.
“The fall of pass percentage in driving tests in the automated environment is an indication that manual testing is highly substandard,” said the report.
In 1992, the transport commissioner fixed an average time of 12 minutes for testing a candidate. However, in March 2007, it was reduced to 4, 8 and 12 minutes per test in respect of two wheelers, light motor vehicles and transport vehicles respectively.
During the field verification at Meenambakkam and Tambaram RTOs, it was found that authorities took 29.06 minutes to test 57 candidates for two wheeler licences, which works out to an average of 30 seconds per test.
“Assessing applicants’ competence within 30 seconds raises doubt on the efficacy of the tests,” said the report while blaming the government for delay in developing automated testing tracks.
The audit report said the Highways department has not utilized the funds allotted for eliminating black spots.
In 2014, the Chief Engineer, Highways department prepared a comprehensive proposal to correct black spots in roads at an estimated cost of Rs. 1,130 crore and government decided to execute works at an
outlay of Rs. 900 crore. During 2014-18, the government released Rs.756.22 crore, however only Rs. 457.56 crore was utilized.
Similarly, Rs. 946.19 crore was collected towards compounding fees and spot fines during 2013-18, but only Rs. 325 crore (34 %) was provided for the Road Safety Fund, of which only Rs. 165.37 crore was utilized.
Elaborating on the lack of coordination between Police and RTOs, the report said 6,69,589 accident cases were registered by Chennai police in 2018, of which it recommended 2,986 cases to RTOs for suspension of Driving licence. But RTOs suspended only 1,628 licences.
Besides suggesting infrastructure and manpower improvements at RTOs, CAG said stringent penal action like suspension of licences and steeper fines would deter violations of traffic laws.
It also asked the highways department to create an institutional framework for Road Safety Audit and monitor rectification works of the black spots.