In a significant initiative, the Cabinet on Wednesday decided to transfer the powers of inquiry into road accidents from the traffic police to the local police. Traffic police stations will henceforth be known as traffic enforcement units and will focus on enforcement and regulation.
According to an official statement issued by the Chief Minister’s office after the Cabinet meeting, the number of road accidents could be brought down by improving enforcement and regulation and tackling traffic snarls if the responsibility of probing road accident cases was given to the local police. The decision was taken on the basis of the Director General of Police’s recommendations based on the road accident figures for the last three years.
The Cabinet also gave the green signal for creation of 186 new posts for the new police stations being set up at Mattannur (Kannur), Elavumthitta (Pathanamthitta), Kannanellore (Kollam), Pantheerankavu (Kozhikode), Udumbanchola( Idukki), and Melparamba (Kasaragod). In addition, 30 policemen from the nearby police stations will be redeployed to the six stations which are being newly established.
Other decisions
The Cabinet also decided to provide 15 acres of land on lease in Karinthalam village in Kasaragod for establishing the Yoga and Naturopathy Post Graduate Institution, under the auspices of the Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy. The proposed institute will also have a 100-bed hospital.
In order to bail out the Hindustan Newsprint Ltd, which has been put on the privatisation block, the Cabinet decided to provide raw materials such as bamboo, reeds, eucalyptus and acacia at the existing rate of ₹1,000 a tonne for 2017-18 and 2018-19 as a special case.
The Cabinet also decided to form a new revenue division headquartered at Punalur in Kollam district.