City pitches in for road safety awareness

Ludhiana: A traffic awareness programme has been started by the Ludhiana Police under the 31st Road Safety Week. Traffic Police announced that no challans would be issued in this week of the road safety drive, and only awareness would be raised at various areas in the city. The drive was inaugurated by police commissioner Rakesh Aggarwal.

To educate residents about traffic rules, a special drive was organised at Kissan Mela on the fourth day of the Road Safety Week. The awareness rally was flagged off by Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Punjab Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs minister. Approximately, 4,000 people took part in the rally. NGOs, municipal corporation councillors as well as social organizations have been roped in, and residents are being educated about traffic rules.

Deputy commissioner Pradeep Kumar Agrawal, police commissioner Rakesh Kumar Agrawal, noted actors Nirmal Rishi and Jaswinder Bhalla, municipal councillors Mamta Ashu and Sunny Bhalla, singer Sukhwinder Sukhi, and several senior officials of the district administration were present on the occasion. The cabinet minister also administered an oath to city residents to follow all traffic rules, and help police make Ludhiana free from traffic jams and accidents.

Continuing to create awareness, Ludhiana Police on the 5th Day of the Road Safety Week arranged a special awareness seminar at KVM School, and at Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women, Ghumar Mandi. Following the seminar, a rally was organised to create awareness among the public with regard to helmets. About 150 girls from the college participated in the drive, along with traffic police on their bikes and scooters. The drive started from Khalsa College in Ghumar Mandi to Fountain Chowk, proceeding towards Mall Road, onward to Bharat Nagar Chowk, then to Bhai Wala Chowk, Aarti Chowk, and then via Ghumar Mandi, the drive ended at Khalsa College itself. The students held placards in their hands, and also raised slogans to create awareness.

Speaking about the drive, ACP Traffic Gurdev Singh said, “We are so happy to see the response of the public during these drives. It gives us a ray of hope, and we could see that now residents of Ludhiana want some kind of change, and are ready to help police in their efforts. People actively participated and pledged to help police make Ludhiana free of traffic jams and accidents. I am personally happy to see this kind of attitude from the public. It gives us strength and power after receiving such a response. We will try our best to make the best out of this safety week, and to connect more and more people to this awareness drive.”

Police chief Rakesh Aggarwal said, “The theme of the 31st Road Safety Week is ‘Sadak Suraksha, Jeevan Raksha’. Under this, we are taking steps to create awareness among the public. Today (Wednesday), we carried out a helmet awareness drive. The purpose of the helmet rally was to catch the attention of the public and disseminate the message of importance of helmets for bike-riders.”