Noida: Road safety month launched

Noida: The Gautam Budh Nagar police on Sunday launched the road safety month aimed at raising awareness among the public about the traffic rules.

Noida: The Gautam Budh Nagar police on Sunday launched the road safety month aimed at raising awareness among the public about the traffic rules.

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According to police officials, the month-long programme will focus on five Es – education, enforcement, engineering, emergency and environment. On the occasion, a bike and car rally for traffic awareness was flagged off from the police commissionerate in Sector 108.

The officials said that the traffic awareness programme this year will emphasise on environment friendly initiatives. People will be asked to keep their vehicles in good condition to check air pollution, they said.

Ganesh Saha, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), said that this year ‘environment’” has been added to the traffic programme as Noida’s air quality continues to deteriorate. “We have planned different initiatives considering all the five Es. We will organise awareness programmes in different schools and colleges for road safety. We will also do enforcement and seek people’s participation,” Saha said.

The DCP said that residents can join the traffic police as traffic volunteers and traffic wardens. “We will coordinate with the residents welfare associations (RWAs) and select traffic volunteers. They will be deployed near their housing societies and sectors to manage traffic with the police,” he said.

Saha said that the Noida traffic police have already launched a control room to establish communication with the residents.

Alok Singh, police commissioner, Gautam Budh Nagar, said that the UP government has already announced to pay Rs 2,000 to the good Samaritans who help road accident victims reach hospital and save lives. “The police will not question the good Samaritans. We will reward them for their noble works,” Singh said.

The police last year had identified 33 ‘black’ (accident-prone) spots in the district. “In the one-month drive, we will take initiatives and try to remove the black spots and ensure no accidents take place there,” the police commissioner said.

Singh said that the Covid-19 lockdown had forced people indoor for a few months and the city’s air had become clean. “But again people have started their normal activities. We should mend our ways and not wait for another such pandemic to learn a lesson,” he said.

Rohit Baluja, director, Institute of Road Safety Education, who attended the Sunday’s event, said that most road accidents take place due to indiscipline by road users. “People violate traffic rules which lead to accidents. In 2019, a total of 1.54 lakh people had died in road accident in India as per National Crime Records Bureau. Every year, around 23,000 people die and 28,000 are injured in road accidents in Uttar Pradesh only,” he said.

A number of local residents and school children also attended the inaugural programme. Alok Singh, a resident of Sector Alpha-1 in Greater Noida, said that the violators should be made to do community service. “The cash penalty does not yield good result. The traffic violators should be engaged in community service for one-two hours. They should also attend traffic orientation programme so that such violations are not repeated,” he said.