Faulty road construction should be made non-bailable offence: Nitin Gadkari
New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI): Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said faulty road construction should be made a non-bailable offence and road contractors and engineers should be held responsible for accidents and punished.
Addressing an event organised by industry body CII, Gadkari further said India is number one in road accidents in the world.
"Faulty road construction should be a non-bailable offence and road contractors, concessionaires and engineers should be held responsible for accidents and sent to prison," he said.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways aims to reduce road accident fatalities to half by 2030.
According to the minister, the ministry data of road accidents in 2023 shows five lakh mishaps in the country resulting in 1,72,000 deaths.
"Of this, 66.4 per cent, or 1,14,000, were in the 18-45 years age bracket while 10,000 deaths were of children," Gadkari said.
He pointed out that 55,000 deaths were reported due to absence of helmets and 30,000 were due to non-use of seat belts.
Gadkari also said the highways ministry is spending Rs 40,000 crore to rectify black spots on highways.
He urged the industry and other stakeholders to partner with the government to set up driver training and fitness centres to address the acute shortage of drivers in the country.
Gadkari also said it has been decided that trucks in India should be fitted with driver fatigue and sleep-detection devices to improve road safety.
"In many other countries, drivers get down after driving for eight hours. Our drivers go on driving for up to 15-18 hours non-stop.
"We need to respond to these needs and be sensitive to drivers' fatigue for promoting road safety," he said.
The minister focused on the need to involve children from class 5 to class 11 in road safety promotion, and educate them, and make them road-safety ambassadors.
"In the auto sector, we have already brought reforms from the lens of road safety. Bharat NCAP Ratings have been brought to make sure compliance on the road safety from auto sector is there," he added.
"Road Engineers, and Road Developers need to focus on standards of road from the lens of road safety. We need to improve DPRs from road safety perspective," he said.
Safe Drivers need to be incentivised, the minister said.
"Penalising violations is only part of solution. Companies should study the pilot (project) in Nagpur on how good and safe drivers are being incentivised through goodies, discounts and coupons," Gadkari said.
Speaking at the event, Road Transport and Highways Secretary V Umashankar said road safety initiatives should be converted into a mass movement.
"Each accident point has its own story to tell, each black spot has its own story. We need to sensitise people at the district level," he said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
SGPC writes to Mann, seeks ban on 'Emergency' in Punjab a day before release
Amritsar, Jan 16 (PTI): The SGPC on Thursday wrote to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, seeking a ban on the release of Kangana Ranaut's movie 'Emergency' saying it "tarnishes" the image of Sikhs and "misrepresents" history.
Actor and BJP MP Ranaut's 'Emergency' is slated to release in cinemas on January 17.
In the letter to Mann, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee chief Harjinder Singh Dhami expressed strong objection to Ranaut's film.
Dhami said that if the film is released in Punjab, it will spark "outrage and anger" in the Sikh community and therefore it is the responsibility of the government to ban its release in the state.
The SGPC, an apex gurdwara body, had earlier also protested the film.
"It has come to our attention that the movie 'Emergency' produced by BJP MP Kangana Ranaut is going to be released on 17th January 2025 in cinemas in different cities of Punjab and the tickets have also started to be booked," its letter to Mann read.
Dhami said the SGPC had also protested the release of the movie in a letter to the Punjab Chief Secretary on November 14 last year.
"But it is sad that the Punjab government has not taken any step till now. If this film is released on January 17, 2025, then it is natural to create outrage and anger in the Sikh world," the current letter read.
Dhami said the SGPC will submit a letter also to all the deputy commissioners in Punjab, seeking a ban on the film in the state.
The SGPC denounced the "character assassination" of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the Khalistani militant killed in 1984 in a military operation.
"If this film is released in Punjab, we will be forced to strongly oppose it at the state level," Dhami said.
In August last year, the SGPC sent a legal notice to the producers of the 'Emergency' film, alleging that it "misrepresented" the character and history of Sikhs, and asked them to remove the objectionable scenes depicting "anti-Sikh" sentiments.
In the notice, the producers of the film, including Kangana Ranaut, were asked to remove the trailer released on August 14 from all public and social media platforms and tender a written apology to the Sikh community.
The SGPC objected to film writing separate letters to the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and the Central Board of Film Certification.
