Road safety Bill should look beyond national highways: Panel………Pradeep Kaushal
A parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended the withdrawal of the Road Safety and Traffic Management Board Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha on May 4.
The committee said the Bill, which targets only national highways, should be replaced by a comprehensive legislation covering the entire gamut of safety relating to all roads.
The report, submitted by Chairman of the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture Sitaram Yechury to Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Mohammad Hamid Ansari on Wednesday, stated: “Road safety is a common problem to the national as well as state and other roads; therefore, there has to be a common solution for the common problem.”
The Bill provides for the establishment of a National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board for facilitating better regulation of traffic and improved safety standards in highway design and construction. The committee said since the proposed board’s role would be mainly advisory, it would be largely ineffective. Besides, it would not have the power to ensure coordination among different agencies, thereby leading to unnecessary duplication for laying specifications regarding national and state highways.
The report forecasts that in the absence of new initiatives, the total number of road traffic injuries and deaths would rise by 65 per cent between 2000-2020 across the world. In India, the number of deaths had increased to 1,14,444 in 2007 from 84,674 in 2002.
The panel expressed its surprise over the fact that the process of amending the Motor Vehicle Act, which was taken up in 2001, was still pending. Worse still, while an amendment to the MV Act was under the consideration of the government, another Bill relating to road safety was brought to Parliament. The committee said it was against the idea of bringing legislative proposals piecemeal.
The standing committee faulted the government for not framing a National Road Safety Policy and felt it “should take precedence over any other measures, legal or executive”.