Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran told the Assembly on Monday that the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) would soon operationalise its Third Eye project. It would enable the public to report violations of rules through a mobile application.
Replying to questions by Anil Akkara and A.P. Anil Kumar, the Minister said ambulances and school buses were required to be equipped with GPS-tracking devices by the end of this month. Referring to the death of a nine-year-old student after he fell off a school bus in Malappuram a few days ago, Mr. Saseendran said the MVD would suspend the licence of the driver. School buses unfit to transport students would not be permitted to operate services. Besides, the Education Department has been urged to withdraw the recognition of schools that turn a blind eye to such violations.
The number of casualties and road accidents is on the rise in the State. As many as 4,408 people were killed and 32,581 were injured in 41,153 accidents across the State in 2019. The statistics were markedly higher than the 4,303 deaths and 31,672 injuries in 40,181 incidents reported in 2018.
Responding to questions, the Minister said while there had been an increase in the number of casualties, various precautionary measures such as Safe Kerala, which was operationalised last November, had been effective in reining in the problem.
There had been a fall of 8% and 18.8% respectively when the fatalities in November and December 2019 were compared with the figures in the corresponding months in 2018.