17 MPs across party lines write to PM Narendra Modi urging for strong road safety legislation

Expressing concern over the colossal loss of 1.3 million people to road crashes in the past decade in India, a group of Members of Parliament (MPs) cutting across party lines have written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealing for the urgent introduction of a strong road safety legislation in the forthcoming monsoon session of the Parliament.

This is the second time since December 2015 that MPs have urged the Prime Minister for the urgent introduction of road safety legislation.

Stressing on the political commitment made by the government after the demise of Gopinath Munde in a road accident two years ago, the first signatory to the letter, Dr Shashi Tharoor, Indian National Congress (INC), said, “This government's assurances regarding introducing comprehensive road safety legislation remain to be acted upon. As an Indian MP and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, I am dismayed at how poorly we fare on road safety by global standards, which also dents our country's image worldwide. While many other developing countries including China have taken swift action to bring down the number of deaths in road crashes, India still lags behind. I am writing to the PM again to convey the urgent need for a strong road safety law.”

Notably, at a time when the government is finding it difficult to build consensus in Parliament on various issues, road safety has emerged as an issue with bipartisan support.

Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda of Biju Janata Dal (BJD), one of the signatories to the letter, said, "I signed a letter to the Prime Minister in December last year as well, and a commitment was made by him for swift action. The frequency of road crashes is increasing, and the number of daily fatalities now stands at 400, with over 70 percent of the fatalities falling in the most productive age group of 15 to 44."

At present, the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, which governs road transport in India, is an archaic legislation that has failed to address the prevailing systemic challenges that make Indian roads the most unsafe in the world. According to government's own data, over 16 people are killed every hour in India due to road crashes. The annual economic loss suffered by the country due to this issue alone stands at 3 percent of our GDP or seven times the budget of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the nodal agency for ensuring road safety in India.

Piyush Tewari, founder and CEO of SaveLIFE Foundation, a road safety advocacy group, said, “Whether the government brings a new road safety law or amend the existing Motor Vehicles Act, it must reform the fractured driver licensing and training systems, modernise enforcement, establish minimum safety standards for engineering of roads and vehicles, and most importantly, protect Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) such as pedestrians, cyclists and children, who are completely ignored by the current legislation.”

The signatories

The signatories to the letter include Rajeev Satav, Ninong Ering, SP Muddahanumegowda and G Sukender Reddy from INC; RK Jena, Balabhadra Majhi and Dr Kulamani Samal from BJD; AP Jithender Reddy, Dr B Narasaiah Goud, Bheemrao B Patil, K Prabhakar Reddy, Godam Nagesh and K Vishweshwar Reddy from TRS, and Dushyant Singh Chautala from Indian National Lok Dal.

B Vinod Kumar, deputy floor leader for Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in Lok Sabha, who has also supported the letter, said, “It is embarrassing that India tops the list for road crash fatalities worldwide. The factors contributing to this rise stretch across several sectors, which demonstrate the need for strong legislative measures and a nationwide campaign like the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to bring cohesion in action.”

Several of the signatories later took to social media to express their support for the road safety legislation bill.

Fatal accident near PM’s residence

According to media reports, a cyclist was involved in a fatal accident near the prime minister’s residence last Friday. The cyclist was crushed by a speeding Swift car. It is believed that the accident caused panic as the PM’s convoy had just passed the accident spot hours earlier.

Apart from the above accident, the recent hit and run case in Delhi, where the highly intoxicated 21-year old driver killed two people and gravely injured another man before a duty cop stopped him or the recent bus crash on Mumbai-Pune expressway where 70 people, mostly children and women lost their lives due to over-speeding by the driver; and many more such incidents are a staple of daily newspapers, raising some serious questions on our understanding of the value of human lives.

Nitin Gadkari bats for road safety

Meanwhile, the union minister of Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari has time and again expressed the government’s helplessness in being unable to pass the new bill and has blamed ‘vested interests’ and lobbies for creating hurdles for the new legislation.

"Despite our best efforts, the Bill which we made could not be introduced in Parliament. This is a difficult problem for us. The Act falls under the purview of concurrent list and both state governments and the Centre have rights. Different lobbies are there who are opposing the Bill," the minister had said recently.

The political tussle between states and the Centre has resulted in the loss of precious time and consequently precious lives as well. Given the delay, Gadkari recently took to social media to appeal to people to obey traffic rules and exercise utmost care and caution on the roads.

The current scenario of political and bureaucratic apathy needs to change for India to minimise road casualties in the country. It is not only a matter of utmost importance due to sheer loss of lives, but each accident that isn’t prevented comes with a financial cost as well. In Maharashtra alone, there was a loss of around Rs 15,000 crore during 2015 due to the 64,000 accidents in the state last year.

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