Bhubaneswar: The entire 1.5 km-stretch of Janpath between Master Canteen and Ram Mandir Square in the Temple City turned into a road safety awareness hub Sunday as participants of the 78th Patha Utsav focused on imparting lessons on traffic rules to the visitors.
On this occasion, the state Transport department hired professional artistes, played the roles of Yamraj – the Hindu mythological God of death, his aide Chitragupta and guards to convey the message that neglecting traffic rules may lead to death. Just like the mount of Yamraj is a bison, a bike was camouflaged as a bison, the mount of Yamraj, while he posed with kids holding placards with road safety messages.
Addressing the visitors, veteran actor Kuna Tripathy called for exemplary punishments for all violating road safety rules. He made an emotional appeal to the young crowd and advised them not to be a burden on their parents/ elders, but support them in every walk of life.
BJD MP from Bhubaneswar, Prasanna Patsani, attributed the increasing road accident fatalities to the use of mobile phones by youngsters while driving. According to Patasani, Patha Utsav has turned out to become an effective ground spreading social messages among the people and, this time, the Transport department has made good use of the situation by turning the venue as a hub for road safety awareness campaign.
In his brief address, Transport Commissioner Sanjeeb Panda reiterated the concept of MORASH – ‘No to mobile phones’, ‘No to over-speeding’, ‘Respect for others’, ‘No to alcohol’, ‘No to speed’ and ‘Yes to helmets’, to help save valuable lives.
Panda also talked about the Good Samaritan Policy of the state government, which makes people bringing accident victims to hospitals (both government and private) of a cash award of Rs 2,000 for saving lives.
Aside from the cash incentive, the person can claim the amount he/she has spent on transporting the accident victim to the hospitals. He also assured that police would not harass people who rescue accident victims and takes them to hospital. Police would also not lodge any case against the rescuer, Panda added.
These benefits would be available at the nearby Road Transport Office (RTO) and to avail these benefits a person needs to obtain a certificate from the doctor concerned declaring that the injured person was helped by him/her.
Two computer science professors, who are on a mission to cover 777 km in seven days across the state to spread awareness on road safety, ended their ride at Patha Ustav Sunday. Gopal Krushna Sahu (40) and Kumar Devadutta (40) had embarked on their cycle expedition from Bhubaneswar Cycling and Adventure Club.
Special attraction at the 78thPatha Utsav was a story-telling session by an Australian children’s book author at the Bakul Library on Janpath, which started at 8.30AM. The story-telling session was followed by an interaction with her.