By IANS
New Delhi : Alarmed by the growing number of road accidents and subsequent deaths, the home ministry is planning to include traffic guidelines as part of the school curriculum so that youngsters can imbibe good driving culture.
Home ministry officials Thursday said they are interacting with the human resources development (HRD) ministry to draw a draft plan so that traffic rules can be a part of the school textbooks prepared by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT).
“Incidents of road accidents are on the rise and authorities are doing a fair job, but we are planning to introduce a ‘civil sense’ chapter, primarily focusing on traffic rules, in the NCERT curriculum to check the traffic problems,” Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta said here.
“Introduction of such traffic guidelines will certainly help in dealing with traffic problems more efficiently not only in the capital but as well in other metropolitan cities,” Gupta said while inaugurating the road safety exhibition at the 27th edition of the India International Trade Fair (IITF).
He said the home ministry would take up this issue with the HRD ministry for early implementation.
According to government estimates, India accounts for about 10 percent of the total 1.2 million fatal accidents in the world. In the year 2000, the Planning Commission had assessed the social cost of road accidents in the country at Rs.550 billion.
Gupta said the government was also considering a proposal to double the vehicle insurance amount and cancellation of driving licenses for three years for those found guilty in more than one road accident.
Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal emphasised police-public partnership for improving traffic situation in the capital.
“Traffic is an important issue. Not only authorities but citizens’ contribution is required to make the roads safer for everyone. People must adhere to traffic norms and regulation,” Dadwal said.
He added that the government’s proposal of building underground parking spaces below the parks in residential areas to solve parking problems is under consideration.
“The proposal is currently under consideration but if approved by the concerned authorities, the residents have to bear the construction charges,” he said.
When told that the traffic woes of the capital have been largely caused because there has been no increase in the strength of the traffic police in past one decade, Gupta said the home ministry has recently cleared an additional 1,000 posts for the Delhi Police.
“We have sanctioned them a strength of 1,000 more officials and I believe most of them will be deployed in the traffic department,” Gupta said.
According to estimates, Delhi has over 5.5 million vehicles and gets 1,000 new ones every day. Over one million vehicles also join the capital’s traffic every day from neighbouring states.
All senior police official attended the road safety exhibition, while children holding placards of various schools performed songs and dances educating people about road safety and traffic rules at the inauguration function.