Kerala - Kochi   

District Road Safety agency yet to begin functioning

KOCHI: The newly-constituted Road Safety Cell at the district and taluk levels are yet to begin functioning in right earnest, despite worsening traffic hold-ups and mounting accidents.

The cell’s purported aim is to bring about coordination between road-maintaining agencies like the PWD, Corporation, GCDA and the National Highways Authority of India on the one side and traffic rule enforcing wings like the police and the Motor Vehicles’ Department on the other. They now work at cross-purposes. The district-level Road Safety Committee headed by the District Collector was the cell’s predecessor and has not met for over two years. It is mandatory to hold frequent meetings, to ensure smoother and safe movement of vehicles in the district.

The Regional Transport Officer in charge of Ernakulam, P.C. Thomas, said that though a decision has been taken to appoint the RTO as the head of the district-level cell and the respective tahsildar at the taluk level, the financial allocation required to execute the decisions taken by the cell has not been made. Earlier, it had been decided to set apart 50 per cent of the money collected as fine from motorists, as the fund for the cell.

In the absence of a body to coordinate the activities between the agencies, the difference of opinion among consecutive heads of civic agencies and law-enforcing wings has been holding up the implementation of proposals aimed at streamlining traffic flow. The traffic police have repeatedly been complaining of civic agencies (in charge of road maintenance) turning a blind eye to their recommendations.

“Even written communications demanding urgent action to remove a fallen tree from the footpath or road and filling of potholes that cause accidents, are not taken note of. We do not have funds to build a new public utility or to remove bottlenecks,” said a police official.

Often, this results in road users blaming policemen on duty at junctions for their ‘apathy’. On their part, civic agencies have been blaming the police for initiating reforms without consulting them. The Kochi Corporation has repeatedly been resisting attempts by the police and the District Administration to rope in sponsors to install traffic signal systems, no-parking boards and the painting of parking and bus bays.

M.L. George, the director of Fiat Justicia, which recently constituted Red Alert - an organisation aimed at ensuring road safety, said the discordant relationship among heads of different departments is a cause for grave concern.

“The tax-paying road users are suffering for no fault of theirs. We have written to the Chief Secretary demanding that the district-level road safety agency meet at least every month and review the progress of works carried out to streamline traffic flow. With the PWD and the Corporation taking ages to fill a pothole, we have demanded that at least two mobile road repair units (each costing Rs 30 lakh) be allotted to the police.”

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