Gurgaon traffic police to allot more funds for awareness drives

FOLLOWING the lead of their Delhi counterparts, the Gurgaon police have now approached their headquarters with the request that they be allowed to spend half the funds collected as fines or challans to raise awareness on traffic safety issues among road users.
The Gurgaon police collected a whopping Rs 4 crore in the form of fines from approximately 84,936 challans issued from January 1 till December 31 in 2009, records show.
"If we can allocate 50 per cent of this amount to teaching commuters -- through various campaigns at school and college levels -- that road safety is largely their own responsibility, it will help bring down the number of fatalities and injuries in road accidents," S S Deswal, Gurgaon Commissioner of Police, said.
As per data available, the number of people killed in road accidents was almost four to five times the number of those killed in other crimes like murders etc, he added.
"If we have more resources, we can carry out informative campaigns though the mass media like newspapers, television, posters and hoardings," the police chief said. He added the police will carry out a massive drive during the Road Safety Week starting from Friday.
"We will issue fewer challans and instead educate people," he said.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satinder Gupta, there has been almost a 23 per cent reduction in the number of deaths or injuries caused by road accidents in all three zones of Gurgaon in 2009, compared to the previous year.
"Through data available, we have marked a couple of priority areas like the Expressway, DLF area and Sushant Lok, where we have carried out intense drives against speeding, drink driving and underage driving.
The results have been encouraging," DCP Gupta said.