 Early Times Report
srinagar, July 25: Governor NN Vohra chaired a high-level meeting at Civil Secretariat here to review problems relating to traffic management in the State. He had detailed discussions with the senior officers of Transport Department, Traffic Police, Motor Vehicles Department and R&B Department, among others.
The meeting was attended by Advisors to Governor B B Vyas, K Vijay Kumar, Khurshid Ganai; Chief Secretary, BVR Subrahmanyam; Principal Secretary, Home, R K Goyal; Spl DG-PHQ, V K Singh; Principal Secretary Transport, Dr Asgar Samoon; Principal Secretary, Planning, Rohit Kansal; Commissioner R&B, Khursheed Shah; IG Traffic, Basant Rath; Transport Commissioner, Saugat Biswas; and Development Commissioner (Works) Satish Razdan.
Principal Secretary Transport Department, Dr Asgar Samoon, Basant Rath, IG Traffic and Transport Commissioner, Saugat Biswas, made presentations to project the varied steps being taken to improve the traffic management system and the challenges faced in the process.
Governor directed Dr Samoon to take immediate steps for strengthening traffic management; ensuring safety on roads and institutionalizing professional planning in the domain of traffic management; immediate establishment of the Jammu and Kashmir Road Safety Fund in accordance with the provisions of the J&K Road Safety Council Act 2018. Governor directed that at least 75% of the receipts collected by MVD and the Traffic Department through compounding of Traffic Rule violations should be allocated to the Fund which shall be utilized for meeting expenditures on Road Safety, such as setting up signages, launching awareness and media campaigns, addressing issues at black spots etc for reducing the incidence of serious road accidents.
Governor directed Principal Secretary Transport to ensure that a Traffic Planning Wing is urgently put in place for professional research and policy formulation, both short and long term, for planned traffic management in the State.
Governor also reviewed the status of Pollution Checking Centres in J&K and was informed by Transport Commissioner that a joint team of officials of MVD and Pollution Control Board had recently undertaken an audit of all the Pollution Checking Centres and only those centres were allowed to continue which were found working strictly as per norms. The rates charged for pollution certification have been enhanced and brought at par with other states. |
