SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2024
At the end of the discussion, the Chief Minister announced that a comprehensive report would be prepared within a fortnight and implementation of a robust plan to tackle the issue of road safety would begin from December 1. However, there is no sign of any comprehensive plan or a road map ready for implementation. Nevertheless, the map to road disaster is in implementation at breakneck speed.
Across the State, one will witness roads being dug up for various reasons. In the capital city Panjim, it is the Smart City project, in Margao and several other towns and villages it is either the underground cabling or the sewage pipeline works being carried out. If none of the above then, it’s the national highway works or road expansion works.
The net result is that without proper planning and taking the locals in confidence well in advance about the works to be carried out, their lives are thrown out of order and jeopardised. With lack of space, parking has become the biggest issue and due to haphazard stopping and parking, navigating even the one-way lanes has become an uphill task.
The number of fatal accidents across Goa is on the rise and during the weekends, the casualty ward of the hospitals in the State witnesses accident related cases in increasing numbers.
At the beginning of this month the police department released data on number of cases booked and a startling 326 cases have been booked against minors in the 11 months of this year. That is to say that almost one minor is booked under Motor Vehicles Act for violations everyday. However, the question is how many parents or adults have been booked in relation with the 326 cases. A data on the follow-up cases against the parents too should be released and the transport department and the police should walk-the-talk when they say that under the MV Act the parents too will be made liable for the offences of the children or those who provide the vehicles to the minors will also be booked.
But the revelation that mere 1,236 cases of drunken driving were booked from January to November this year was shocking to say the least, since the Chief Minister claimed in July this year that 95 per cent of the night accidents were a result of drunken driving.
The public is waiting for the government to show up with the Road Safety Management Plan, which is expected to include rectifying the black spots of road engineering and realignment of the roads to ensure that freak accidents can be avoided.
In addition, one of the biggest road safety issues that motorists face in Goa is the stray cattle menace. No road is spared, be it the national highway or the internal roads of villages by the stray cattle journeying from one village to another, endangering the lives of the motorists.
Goa was known to be one of the most lit places in the country with even the village roads having functional street lights across the State. However, in the recent past since the work of road expansion has been underway, the dark nights have been rising. Lack of street lights accompanied with street dogs and stray cattle menace, make up for a perfect trouble calling situation and a blink can land the motorist on the road and in hospital.
However, the most important of all is for the different departments to engage with one another before taking up ‘development’ works as the haphazard manner in which these works are carried out, have proved to be nightmares to the public. Police or home guards deployment at all such places is crucial, even during the night so as to avoid fatalities.
Development works should mean that the citizens look forward for ease of life and living and that can only be achieved with precise planning and coordination.
