Road council of Tamilnadu met only five times in six years
17 Apr, 2013The state government of Tamil Nadu had constituted the state road council under section 215 (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act in 2007 in order to contain the increasing number of accidents in the state. The council, chaired by the transport minister, was mandated to meet once every three months with the chief secretary and top police officers participating and it was aimed at reducing the fatalities and injuries caused by accidents by 20 per cent in five years.
However, the reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that the road council has met for only five times since its formation in 2007. The total number of fatalities attributable to accident in 2006 was around 11,000 and the mandate of the council was to reduce it to 8,000 fatalities by 2013. But as revealed by the reply, the number of those killed in accidents in 2012 was 16,175 – an increase of more than 40 per cent over the 2006 figures.
The applicant also claimed that the proposals made by the council, which include involvement of consumer action groups in district road safety councils, reopening of 18 driving schools of state transport undertakings, establishing driving schools at 20 private engineering colleges and setting up five Integrated Transport Academies, have mostly remained unexecuted.