Road safety week is a farce By Nisser Dias nisserdias at gmail.com SMS to 9422437029
Goa government in association with a NGO is currently organizing road safety week in the state. This exercise is nothing new as the very first fortnight of the year is dedicated to road safety. Ironically over the years it has become more of a farce for the transport authorities and traffic police and also the vehicle users. And now one NGO with its only agenda on making the use of helmets compulsory has joined the authorities. This is exactly what needs to stop. Traffic rules and regulations should not implemented and enforced in a piecemeal manner or for a short period of time. Just because some organization carries out a campaign for implementation of one rule, it does mean the authorities go about making it obligatory only for that period. The traffic rules and regulation should be enforced in totality and throughout.
It is very ironic on the part of the Rural Transport Office (RTO) that they take due care to see that all formalities are completed when a new vehicle is bought and after that they feel that their job is over. The same is the case when a license is issued to a person. However in many cases, license to drive is issued if the palms of RTO officials are greased. It is a known fact that RTO in Goa is the fountain head of corruption. The traffic police cell is not very far behind in extorting money from vehicle owners be it private or public under one pretext or the other. And for this very reason the traffic authorities including the Transport ministry is hesitant to enforce the Traffic Rules and Regulation as it would curtail the flow of huge amounts of illegal money in the pockets of traffic officials right from the top to the bottom.
Let me take a simple example, for almost 5 years now it has become a trend to sport huge numbers on the registration plate – number plate in common man’s parlance. Traffic Rules stipulates that number plates should display the entire registration as per the size prescribed in the rules. However it has become a fad to sport only the last two digits instead of four. And the transport authorities are allowing it. Infact when Mickky Pacheco was the Tourism minister, his official vehicle violated this rule. This amounts to dadagiri and nothing else but plain display of muscle and money power on the road. Then we have cars sporting darkest tint which is also not permitted but the authorities turn a blind eye to this practice. Sporting a improper number plate or dark tinted glasses is an offence even though it does not endanger anybody life, it is these individuals who flaunt such rules that also indulge in rash and negligent driving thereby endangering innocent lives.
RTO officials are aware of this practice, traffic cops are aware of it even the traffic mobile courts are aware of this violation but none of the government and judiciary bodies have been able to bring about changes in the manner traffic rules and regulations are violated.
Are the authorities blind to people using mobiles while driving. There is a young lady zipping through Margao city. She has been fined umpteen times for this violation but she continues her habit. Question is why have the police and traffic mobile court not suspended her driving license.
Road discipline and respect for life is what is lacking in most of the drivers and the need of the hour is to inculcate such a habit. Take for example, nobody stops at the zebra crossing for pedestrians to cross the road if a cop is not stationed there. Secondly no driver stops for a reversing car, only if a person wants a parking space then only will a driver stop. It is rule that whenever a car is being reversed, it should be allowed or given preference but nobody follows it nor do the authorities enforce it.
It is known fact that all over the state there is an acute shortage of parking space. This blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the successive government and city planners because they have allowed builders to turn parking space into shops and godowns. Ironically chief minister himself does not have parking space for his vehicles in his own building. An RTO officer too, parks his car on the road. The shortage of parking space forces people to double parking thereby causing congestion, traffic jam and chaos. This has direct cascading effect on driving which leads to reckless driving to make up for the lost time.
Another aspect of parking spaces. Certain spaces are identified for different categories of vehicles. However public vehicles like rickshaws, taxis and even tourists taxis are allowed to park in spaces meant for the general public, whereas if an individual parks his private car in space marked for public vehicle, the rickshaw drivers hurl abuses.
Then we have private buses plying on routes. Are the authorities blind to see that they are being filled with commuters like a concentration camp. Can’t the RTO and the traffic initiate stringent action against the driver, conductor and owner. Similar is situation with individuals transporting children to school.
The need of the hour is enforce Traffic Rules in letter and spirit and at the same time increase the quantum of fine to a level that a defaulter or a violator feels the punch and not the pinch of the fine.
Road safety weeks are a farce because nothing is being done to enforce traffic rules and regulation. It seems that road safety week are being conducted to increase the revenue generation for the government. As of now letting indiscipline driving to carry is beneficial to every authority connected with traffic and transport as they can rake huge amounts of illegal money. Till such time the mindset of those in-charge of transport or traffic changes, the graph of deaths due to road accidents will keep rising and roads safety weeks will turn into a mockery. (ENDS)
======================================================= First published in Gomantak Times, Goa - August 4, 2011
