Dissolve District Road Safety Committee: Parisar

Pune: Parisar, an organisation based in Pune working on road safety issues, was appointed as a member of the District Road Safety Committee last year. It has now requested the Supreme Court to dissolve the committee with the appointment of the senior most Member of Parliament as its chairman.

The NGO wrote a letter to the apex court on May 27. The NGO subsequently requested that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH)-constituted District Road Safety Committees with the senior Member of Parliament as its chairperson, in all districts of the country. It may be noted that no such powers are granted to the Central government since the District Road Safety Committees can only be legally notified by the state government under the Motor Vehicles Act.

“Based on the ministry’s notification, the Transport Commissioner of Maharashtra had sent a letter to all RTOs asking them to disband the earlier District Road Safety Committees. They were instead directed to convene the committees constituted as the MoRTH notification. No notification to this effect was issued by the Government of Maharashtra,” said Parisar program director Ranjeet Gadgil.

“We have looked into the formation of these committees. We believe that the newly constituted committees do not have any legal sanctity. Further, they are in contravention of the directions of the Supreme Court dated November 30, 2017, which clearly says that the district committees must be notified under the Motor Vehicles Act by the State government and should be chaired by the district collector,” he said.

Following a PIL by orthopaedic surgeon S Rajaseekaran, concerned with the alarming increase in road crash deaths and injuries in the country, the Supreme Court appointed a Committee on Road Safety headed by Justice KS Radhakrishnan, which has been monitoring the implementation of the orders of the top court by the state governments.
Parisar advocacy coordinator Sandeep Gaikwad said they have written to the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety to bring the matter to the apex court’s notice. He said this action has been taken since a Member of Parliament cannot be held accountable by the State/District administration. 

“The MoRTH notification should be quashed and the state governments should comply strictly with the directions of the Hon?ble Supreme Court,” he added.