Minister Hides Face & Citizens hide ?

 Recently Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Mr. Nitin Gadkari has candidly admitted in the parliament that " He tries to Hide his FACE during international conferences on road accidents" 

Referring this article in the Magazine in India Today https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/nitin-gadkari-on-road-accidents-india-lok-sabha-discussion-2648900-2024-12-12

It is very clear why India is not able to reduce accidents despite the Minister took a vow to reduce it by half. 

Minister expression & the way he puts it on citizens to change clearly indicates that there is no near future chance to reduce the accidents.

Since he put the onus on the Responsible Citizens of the country, we wish to offer few suggestions, if implemented, he can hold his head high on any international forum on road safety.

Hence we are directly addressing the minister directly on this issue & request all the readers of this article have to take responsibility to pass it on to the minister through every medium so that there are some actions in the right direction.

Dear Shri Nitin Gadkari Ji !!

With reference to your candid admission in Parliament about the increase in road accidents, we would like to bring forth the following points to your urgent attention and action.

1. DRIVING LICENCE ISSUAL SHOULD BECOME THE RESPONSIBILITY OF UNION GOVERNMENT & NOT BY STATE GOVERNMENTS.

Ease of getting driving license is so easy that anyone can get driving license without even visiting a RTO for driving test. Once upon a time , even the then LTTE Chief Mr. Prabakaran was issued driving license in Bihar even without the knowledge of the LTTE chief himself. Please check the cost of getting driving license in UAE or Singapore where most of the drivers are Indians. Root cause lies here Gentle Man, Indians does not value their driving licenses in ndia but they value it very highly when they are in the countries with Highly safe roads. 

2, DRIVING LICENCE ISSUAL SHOULD BE TOTALLY COMPUTERISED WITHOUT ANY POSSIBILITY FOR HUMAN CORRUPTION

For more than a decade, driving simulators are available for teaching the driving, whereas they have to be used to test the drivers for their Physical, mental, psychological status. India is the world's software capital, why not we use our strength to design a system, where even using the latest AI techniques, to completely scrutinize the drivers capability to handle every situation & conditions in Indian roads. 

3. ALL THE EXISTING DRIVERS HAVE TO BE RETESTED, EVALUATED & RE-ISSUED DL ONLY ON MERIT. 

Under your guidance, your department was able to implement FAST TAG toll collection across the nation & ensure systematic toll collection. In the same manner, every existing driver have to be thoroughly tested, trained & re-issued driving licenses based on merit after tested by a simulator. Increase the driving license issue fees and use them for re-training & introduce safety signs across the nation.

4. COMPREHENSIVE TESTING & TRAINING LABS HAVE TO BE CREATED IN EVERY STATE

Anyone aspiring to get a driving licence have to be given rigourous simulator training & practical field training. The training & testing l;abs to be installed all across India. Penalisation of offences & violations have to be made online & fines have to be debited online for every violation.Subjective manual intervention & corruption have to be eliminated. 

5. HIGH SPEED VEHICLES HAVE TO BE BANNED

Most of the Indian Highways are designed for a speed limit 100 KMPH, whereas everyday in the market many vehicles are being introduced which have very high speed capabilities. Responsible Citizens iYakkam, have released no of articles & videos on this subject but so far It has not evoked any kind of response from GOI & your ministry. 

https://pedestrian-first-campaign.blogspot.com/2022/12/ban-mishap-pants.html

https://pedestrian-first-campaign.blogspot.com/2022/08/freedom-on-roads.html

https://pedestrian-first-campaign.blogspot.com/2022/09/no-more-mystery-no-mercy.html

https://pedestrian-first-campaign.blogspot.com/2022/12/seeking-ban-of-high-speed-vehicles.html

YouTube videos

https://youtu.be/-rOrrRzQh7Y   Why No Majority for Modi 3.0 ?

https://youtu.be/tCLJck6AEd8  Pedestrian Modiji 

Enquiries with your officials reveal, speed of the vehicle & permission to launch a Vehicle does not lie with your ministry. India is a highly populous country & it is impossible to educate & train every pedestrian on how to walk on the road & we have more cattles on the road. Hence it is essential to control the speed of the vehicles.

6. PEDESTRIAN FIRST

Current policy of India , especially under you, SPEED FIRST seems to be mantra. Here too, India's first asset & liability is the Indian population & cities are with very high density in population. It will be prudent to encourage more pedestrians to walk by improving the availability of Public transport system, Even in highly developed countries, the sign of development is when ultra rich uses the Public Transportation system. In this too, you have to become a role model, at least once in a week, you have to use public transport system & walk like a pedestrian. So this will encourage your department officials also to become simple common man and understand the ground realities, instead of just releasing policy notes to reduce road accidents sitting in an AC room.

If these are implemented, you can keep your head high in few years from now.

Every Citizen of India are using roads with lot of fear, unsure when they have to face an accident. Hopefully New Year 2025, we are looking forward to responsible steps form GOI to reduce Road accidents & death.

Responsible Citizens iYakkam 22 dec 2024