Citing a report of the National Crime Bureau, the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Friday said that road accidents are a major cause of concern as they account for the eighth biggest cause of deaths in the country.
He emphasized that conducting awareness programs on the issue is very important.
Addressing a gathering at the closing ceremony of the 32nd National Road Safety month 2021 and Fitness Mela at Police Auditorium Gulshan Ground in Jammu, Sinha said, "Figures on road accidents are quite alarming. As per one of the reports of the National Crime Bureau last year, there was an increase of 1.8 per cent in accidents from 2018 to 2019. The report also says that road accident is the eighth biggest cause of death in our country."
Further quoting the report the LG said that accidents lead to a 3 per cent loss in the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with a loss of Rs 4 lakh crore on average due to road accidents.
Stressing that it is important to conduct awareness programmes, he added that youngsters should come to the fore to participate in the awareness month.
He also announced the launch of 35 new eco-friendly buses in Jammu and Kashmir adding that the administration has decided to wave off a nine per cent tax on electric vehicles apart from tractor road tax.
Further announcing other development projects coming up in the union territory, Sinha said, "Institute of Driving and coaching centre is proposed to come up in Kot Balwal at the cost of around Rs 17 crores. A modernised fitness certification centre is also coming up in Samba for which an amount of Rs Rs 14 crore has been allotted."
"We wanted to celebrate Road Safety week but the I shall elaborate on why this program had to travel a distance of a month from a week. Increasing road mishaps is a major problem for both the nation and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Besides the Centre, the Jammu and Kashmir administration is also sensitive towards the issue and we are putting in our best possible efforts to tackle it. The 32nd National Road Safety month 2021 is among one such effort," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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