Govt worried over rising deaths due to road accidents

Chairing a meeting of State Road Transport Ministers of States/Union Territories on Road Safety here, Road Transport and Highways Minister C P Joshi said though number of road accidents have come down but number of people dying in the road accidents has gone up.

The minister also called for stricter enforcement of vehicle standards and speed limits and separate lanes for different categories of road users to tackle the traffic issues.

"The Union as well as State Governments have a primary role to play in creating safe road traffic conditions through safe infrastructure, legislation, enforcement and education," he said.

The message of road safety, Joshi said, should be spread to the people to bring about a change in their attitude.

"Today's meeting arrived at far reaching conclusions to form the basis for the future work plan as far as road safety is concerned," he said.

The minister assured holding of such meetings frequently.

He also recalled that the Motor Vehicles Act has been passed in the Rajya Sabha and is under consideration in Lok Sabha.