Tamil Nadu Road Safety Policy requires review: Report
As a part of the study, the non-governmental organisation has reviewed the Road Safety Policy of 10 states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, West Bengal and Delhi.
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CHENNAI: A report released by Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG) has ranked Tamil Nadu Road Safety Policy in last place and highlighted that the policy lacks practical, law-abiding institutional framework and the policy has not been reviewed or revised since 2007.
As a part of the study, the non-governmental organisation has reviewed the Road Safety Policy of 10 states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, West Bengal and Delhi.
Of the 10 policies, Tamil Nadu's policy has scored only 18 points, which is least among the 10 policies that were evaluated.
As per the study report, the Tamil Nadu Road Safety Policy was drafted in 2007 and has not been reviewed or revised since that time. "The policy has well drafted action statements including advocacy for safe speed and improved private participation in funding, but they are neither supported by a practical implementation framework (legal and institutional), nor backed by data points. This has left the action on ground disjointed from what the policy intends to do," it noted.
The skeleton of Tamil Nadu's policy has been adopted from the draft of the National Road Safety Policy. The policy is supported by a quantitative target. However, the policy lacks clarity on an implementation strategy for each action statement devised.
"A practical, law-abiding institutional framework to support action on ground is a major miss. No exclusive policy statement reinforcing the need to view road safety as a multi-sectoral concern and focus on interdepartmental coordination has been considered. Application of road safety policy provisions with regards to urban and rural areas have not been clearly mentioned," the report said.
Quoting Ministry of Road Transport and Highways data, the report added that India continues to account for the most road crashes at the global level with data suggesting 53 crashes every hour. Tamil Nadu has ranked the highest in terms of the number of annual road crashes for six consecutive years (2015-2020) contributing to more than 10,000 road fatalities in 2019.
The report recommends a review of the existing Road Safety Policy by an Interdepartmental steering committee with a keen focus on the policy constraints, implementation challenges and fund allocation apart from mandating such annual periodic reviews through means of legislation.
