NGOs urge Nitin Gadkari to pass Bill for road safety

Pune: Appealing to take measures in order to reduce road accident deaths by half, Road Safety Network, a coalition of organisations working for road safety, has written a letter to Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari. 

The organisations have demanded that the Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill, 2017, be passed during the next session of the Parliament i.e. the winter session. The Bill has not been passed in the Rajya Sabha.

The Bill, which promises to bring better road safety on Indian roads, was opposed by several opposition parties stating that it curtails the powers granted to the state governments.

Ranjit Gadgil from Parisar, a city-based NGO, has written this letter on behalf of the six road safety organisations. 

Gadgil wrote the letter in the backdrop of the fifth anniversary of BJP leader Gopinath Munde’s death. He died in the road accident in 2014.

The organisations, who have come together, are Cuts International, Consumer Voice, Save Life Foundation, Center for Environment Education, Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG) and Parisar.

The NGOs have urged Gadkari to include the creation of a safe road system in the new government’s 100-day agenda. 

“We strongly believe that the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has to take urgent steps to get the road safety provisions in the Bill approved as they will help substantially reduce road crash fatalities and injuries,” said Ashim Sanyal of Consumer Voice, one of the members of the coalition.

However, Ranjit Gadgil of Parisar cautioned that the Bill may meet the same fate as the earlier one unless the Ministry is willing to drop the contentious clauses. “We saw pan party support for the road safety provisions in the Bill, but it was stuck due to transport reforms related clauses,” he said.