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Showing posts from April, 2015

Alcohol Alert..Road safety: Diluting penalties in draft bill won't do any good

India leads the world in road crash fatalities — 10% of global road deaths occur here. In the last decade, more than 1 million people have lost their lives in road accidents in the country; several thousands have been injured; and hundreds of families have been destroyed. Reports suggest that while road deaths in many emerging markets like India have dipped despite a spike in vehicle sales, fatalities on Indian roads have shot up by half in the last decade. Despite such staggering proof, the ministry of road transport and highways is diluting stiff penalties that it had proposed in the draft Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2014, to discipline errant drivers and reduce deaths on the roads. While officials have not clarified who are opposed to the stringent fines, the transport workers’ lobby feels that the government is trying to emulate developed countries without studying ground realities. According to the details available in the ministry’s website, anyone caught crossing th...