Road to safety only on paper

Each year without fail the statersquos chief minister flags off the annual road safety campaign amidst considerable fanfare in the presence of ministers and senior bureaucrats from different departments of the state and the police The speeches they deliver at the inaugural function are heavy with concern and alarm over the rise in accidents each year which result in so many deaths Driving conditions on the roads are just as poor as they were on January 1 with nonfunctional street lights broken dividers obscure signposts malfunctioning signals and faded or absent pedestrian crossingsu00a0PicSayed Sameer Abedi This year was no exception with the state government just having completed its fortnightly campaign yesterday And yet again the campaign has made little or no difference to the actual state of the cityrsquos roads and the traffic equipment therein It is safe to say that pedestrians and motorists on the roads are just as unsafe as they were two weeks ago driving conditions on the roads are just as poor as they were on January 1 with street lights out of order broken dividers obscure signposts malfunctioning signals and faded or absent pedestrian crossings MiD DAYrsquos search for signs of change ended in despair and defeat ROAD SAFETY CAMPAIGN A flop show A road safety campaign far away from the roads Mumbai still gets behind the wheel in high spirits BMC Road safety is not our duty Several schools bunk road safety campaign Potholed flyovers miss safety lesson Not enough posters to promote road safety Most hospitals in the dark about campaign In pictures Motorists breaking traffic norms Apart from a few cosmetic efforts like talks and hourlong workshops no sustained efforts had been made that imposed any measure of discipline or resulted in any noticeable improvement on the conduct and movement of traffic in the city Itrsquos not like the departments had no time to plan and implement change The traffic campaign was announced in a government directive issued on December 20 last year by the state transport department which is a part of the home department at Mantralaya The sevenpage directive put the onus on transport commissioner and additional director general of police traffic appointing them as coordinators of the campaign Nine different wings the traffic police RTO public works department MSRDC school education department public health department goods transporters association BMC and DGIPR were asked to implement certain measures to ensure that the campaign actually had some kind of palpable effect Apart from routine elementary drills to create awareness like circulating pamphlets and putting up banners the departments were asked to organise corner meetings organise workshops for drivers install reflectors register cases for drink driving and come down hard on other violations such as overloading illegal passenger traffic and so on They were also asked to put up signposts and boards with telephone numbers of the nearest police station hospital ambulance and crane service Needless to say almost nothing was done to implement many of these wellthoughtout guidelines MiD DAYrsquos survey shows evidence of the perfunctory halfbaked efforts by different departments Even the photographs that our lensmen clicked during the campaign provide an ironic counterpoint to the speeches resolutions and promises that are made every year Guidelines issued to the DGIPR The state directorate general of information and public relations DGIPR which handles media and publicity for the state government had been given a clearcut brief by the state government Their duties involved Publishing a booklet on road safety Posting banners and posters on state transport ST buses and highways Pasting signboards with catchy slogans on highways and major roads Organising programmes at movie halls with television channels and FM radio channels Asked about how many of these guidelines were implemented a senior official from the department spoke on a tangent saying that the department had promptly issued news items forwarded by the home and transport departments to the print and electronic media ldquoWe asked the concerned department to go for publicity and submitted details of the budget required for it But the transport department did not show any keennessrdquo said the official requesting anonymity Fact file The nine wings enlisted to enforce safety measures Traffic police RTO Public works department wMSRDC School education department Public health department wGoods transporters association BMC DGIPR