Police fail to give info on usage of Rs 1.12 cr road safety fund

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, January 18

With around Rs 1.12 crore allocated to road safety fund in the state last year, the authorities concerned have failed to give the details of how the sanctioned amount was used for enhancing the security of commuters.

This was revealed in a response to an RTI application filed by ‘Ek Sangharsh’, a local NGO.

While the office of Traffic AIG in Karnal topped the state with an allocation of Rs 10.97 lakh, no funds were provided to Panipat under this head.

In their reply to the applicant, Ajay Bahl of the NGO, the police said the details of the usage of the funds allocated to each district was not available with them but these could be furnished by the respective district officials.

The application filed in the RTI cell of the office of the DGP, Haryana, on October 17, 2020, had sought information on five points — the budget allocated to road safety fund, penalty recovered from challans, the account where challan penalty was deposited and how this money was used in the past five years.

According to Bahl, though the department has collected Rs 298.77 crore from challans between 2015 and 2019 and sanctioned Rs 1.12 crore under the head of the road safety work, but has failed to give the information about how the money was used.

While the road safety fund needs be used in activities promoting safety of commuters, the officials have only been seen pasting reflectors on the vehicles during fog as part of the drive, the amount for which was also charged from the owners, alleges Bahl.