CM Himanta Biswa Sarma orders steps to reduce road accidents in state

GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday asked Transport Minister Parimal Suklabaidya to hold a meeting with the PWD and Transport Departments to ensure necessary safety norms are introduced in accident-prone areas to bring down the incidences of road accidents.

Chairing a review meeting of the Transport Department with the District Transport Officers at the Janata Bhawan here on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said taking into consideration the number of accident-related fatalities, the Deputy Commissioners of the districts which recorded more than 100 fatalities due to road accidents in the last one year should convene a meeting with all the stakeholders and find out ways to reduce accidents. A letter to that effect will also be sent from the Chief Minister to the respective DCs, stated an official communiqué.

Moreover, since most of the road-related fatalities are caused for not wearing helmets or not using seat belts, the Transport Department and police would jointly undertake a massive fortnightly campaign before the upcoming Durga Puja to generate awareness among the people to adhere to safety rules and save lives.

For the convenience of the public in general, the Chief Minister asked the Transport Department to bring more services under the category of 'Contactless Services'. At present, 40 services of the Transport Department are contactless services and the Chief Minister asked the department to include five more services under the category. From August 15 onwards,, all the services in the Transport Department will be online as manual services will be offered only to those customers whose bio-metric identities are withheld by law.

During the meeting, Sarma also asked the DTOs to ensure that before the expiry of vehicle fitness certificate, the customers receive mobile messages. Similarly, before 30 days of the expiry of validity of learners' licences, the persons concerned should also get mobile messages. All DTOs should convene a meeting with all the transporters to ensure that all vehicles plying in Assam are registered in Assam within one year even if they are registered outside the State.

The Chief Minister also asked the Transport Department to intensify fines from overloading vehicles. He also asked the department to have talks with the Finance Department to facilitate use of digital payment gateways like 'Paytm' to realise fines from the defaulters. Since digital knowhow is becoming very important for conveniently delivery of services to the customers, Sarma also asked the Transport Department to take steps for the creation of new posts in the department to take contactless services of the department to a new level.

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