Why in news:

• Taking cognizance of the high death toll due to road accidents in the state, the state government of Punjab has announced to constitute Sadak Suraksha Force.

Key Points:

• Besides minimising the death toll in road accidents, the development would facilitate implementation of the government’s earlier promise to provide maximum jobs to unemployed youths.
• The announcement was made by Chief Minister after inaugurating a modern Regional Driving Testing Centre at Tolewal village in Amargarh assembly segment. The dire situation can be gauged from the high rate of fatality due to road accidents in the state. In one of the constituencies, the vehicular accident death toll has been as high as 14 deaths per day. One of the most crucial factors pointed out by the state government is that the successive governments in the state in the past had failed to realise the need of training drivers according to changed environment and sophistication of vehicles.
• The state government authorities are now hopeful that fully equipped with ultramodern gadgets and vehicles on the pattern of foreign countries, members of the Sadak Suraksha Force would be able to prevent a large number of accidents by clearing passages and save precious human lives by shifting the injured to nearest hospitals promptly. In this regard, 138 black spots have been identified in the state, an issue that has remained unaddressed over the years and now the authorities have assured that all black spots would be rectified in near future.
• In this regard, the state government has pointed out that majority of accidents are preventable. The government, underlining that the system or the administration is responsible for the majority of accidents has assured that all those steps which are required for checking vehicular accidents on roads will be undertaken to save the precious lives of citizens.