Himachal govt to launch campaign against use of prohibited pressure horns: Dy CM

Shimla, Aug 24 (PTI) The Himachal Pradesh government will launch a special campaign against use of the prohibited pressure horns which create noise pollution, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri.

The transport department along-with the police and environment departments will conduct the campaign.

Agnihotri chaired the fourth meeting of the Himachal Pradesh State Transport Development and Road Safety Council on Saturday.

He said that campaigns and initiatives need to be launched to create awareness about the effects of the noise pollution which also can lead to various health issues adding that the education department can play a pivotal role in creating mass awareness.

He also directed that a "No Horn" campaign should be launched in Shimla city to control noise pollution and that "No Horn" awareness booklets should be distributed throughout the state.

Deputy CM also directed that all stakeholder departments should take the road safety activities seriously and ensure regular monitoring/review at their level.

He also suggested that surveillance cameras should be installed in a phased manner at border areas, especially from Paonta Sahib to Una to monitor and prevent illegal activities related to road safety.

Agnihotri informed about preparation of the Road Safety Act and Rules to strengthen road safety.

He directed that the Road Safety Act should be prepared and proposals should be sent as needed. He also emphasised on strengthening the Road Safety Cell.

Discussing the annual action plan for the financial year 2024-25 as per the directions of the Supreme Court the proposals and activities to be included into the action plan has been taken from all the 12 districts Road Safety Committees and were sent to head of the departments (HoDs) of respective stakeholder departments viz: Police, Transport, Health, Public Works and Education for compilation.

Directing for conducting the meeting at least twice in a year, Agnihotri pointed out that steps should be taken to make the certification system for fitness of motor vehicles fully automatic and effective.

He said the steps needed to be taken to rectify all the spots and the senior officers of the council should also go on the spots where repeated accidents take place so as to analyse the exact cause of mishaps.

Agnihotri said Himachal Pradesh has witnessed reduction in road accidents by 13 per cent and fatalities by 14.6 per cent respectively during the year 2023 in comparison to 2022.

"From January 1 till 31 July this year there was 7.7 per cent reduction in road accidents, 17.3 per cent reduction in deaths and 1.4 per cent reduction in injuries" he said.

The district prone to major accidents as per tabulated data was Shimla, followed by Kangra and Mandi. The PWD authorities need to focus themselves more on the black spots and installation of signages besides the gradient of roads and put it in records, he said.

He also directed to ensure installation of cameras particularly in bordering areas right from Paonta Sahib to Nurpur, which will not only help capturing the overspending but also will be quite fruitful in checking the illegal activities along bordering states. Besides, the laser speed guns to be set up to control rash and drunk and drive.

He also took briefs about the crash barriers being installed and directed the officers of all the line departments to visit the accident spots and to the field to conduct inspections.

It was informed in the meeting that the Police department conducted 5.17 lakh challans thereby releasing 19.13 crore from 1 January to July 2024.

Besides this, the transport department did 21.565 challans during the corresponding period collecting 4.52 crore. A brief about the road network and accident scenario was also discussed in the meeting. PTI COR NB NB