Gujarat House clears bill to set up Road Safety Authority

In a to bring down the number of road accidents, the Gujarat Legislative Assembly today unanimously passed a bill to establish the state Road Safety Authority (GUJROSA) for the implementation of road safety programmes, as suggested by the Supreme Court.
The Gujarat Road Safety Authority Bill 2018 was passed after a debate on the first day of the Budget session.
In his address while putting the bill for discussion, Transport Minister R C Faldu said that more people had died in road accidents than those killed by terrorists in 2016 across the world.
"As per a WHO report, road accidents killed around 12 lakh people globally in 2016. On the other side, 34,000 people were killed by terrorists. Road Terror killed 35 times more people than terrorism," he said.

Faldu said the apex court had in 2014 asked state governments to consider forming Road Safety Authority to decrease accidents.
"Complying with the suggestions of the supreme court, we will establish such authority in Gujarat for effective implementation of state Road Safety policy," he said.

As per the "statement of object and reasons" of the bill, the Authority "would be the lead agency for undertaking the work of road safety with the coordination of separate government departments, NGOs, and volunteers".
As per the bill, the chairman of the Authority will be the state transport minister while transport secretary would function as the vice chairman.

Some of the key functions of the Authority included advising the government on road safety policies, implementing state as well as national road safety policies, notifying annual targets for the reduction of accidents, collecting and analysing accident data and implementing the SC directions in this regard.
After a debate, opposition Congress extended its support for the bill, following which it was passed unanimously.