Nothing for safety in Budget despite loss of lives on roads

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 28

Although many accidents are witnessed on roads in the state every day, the Punjab Government has failed to include the crucial head – road safety – in its annual Budget.

Dr Kamal Soi, a road safety expert, said, “Road safety has been completely ignored in this Budget by the state government. No allocation of funds has been made in this regard.” “How can you not talk about an bone chilling issue, which is taking over 5,000 lives every year, an economic loss of 9000/year. Punjab stands at No. 1 among all major states in the road accidents fatality rate, which is 73.3 per cent. Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal has overlooked this issue by allocating meager funds.”

“I request Chief Minister and Finance Minister to please allocate some funds at least to rectify 450 black spots identified by the Punjab Police during the last five years,” Soi added.

Arun Bector, a city-based banker, said, “The government should control the bloodbath on roads. Effective measures and enough funds need to be spared for the purpose.”

Gaurav Shama, a city-based shopkeeper, said, “Once I had met with an accident on the Gill road. My bike rammed into an electricity pole installed in the mid of the road as I had failed to notice it during night. The authorities had then said that due to lack of funds they cannot shift dozens of poles fixed on city roads.”

Notably, last year the traffic police had prepared a report about road accidents in Ludhiana, which mentioned 91 black spots in the city of which 10 had more fatality rate.

These 10 black spots, include Sahnewal Bridge, Dhandari Flyover, Eastman Cast and Forging Limited, Tibba cut near Tajpur Chowk, Dhandari Kalan bus stop, GMT School-Jalandhar bypass, Kailash Nagar Chowk, gurdwara Guru Arjan Dev-Samrala Chowk, Basti Jodhwal Chowk and Green Land School.

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