Pimpri Chinchwad RTO organises diverse programmes for Road Safety Week

Deputy CM of Maharahstra Ajit Pawar inaugurating the booklet Traffic Ki Paatshala (Vahatuki Paatshala) at the Pimpiri Chinchwad RTO

The Pimpri Chinchwad RTO has been observing Road Safety 2012 by conducting special educational, mass awareness and enforcement programmes for 15 days beginning January 1^st. Giving the details of the programme to TrafficInfraTech, Jitendra Patil, Deputy Regional Traffic Officer, Pimpri-Chinchwad, said that on January 2^nd a training workshop was held at Auto Cluster Development & Research Institute Ltd for instructors of Motor Driving Schools on how to teach proper driving lessons and defensive driving practices to aspiring drivers. A safety awareness programme for auto rickshaw drivers was also held the same day, and road safety pamphlets were distributed to them and to auto rickshaw union members. These pamphlets contained tips on road safety, safe driving practices, and stressed the importance and advantages of wearing helmets, right clothing etc. A booklet called Traffic ki Patshala was released by the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar, and distributed to pupils of standard fifth to tenth in schools all over Pimpri Chinchwad area. The RTO also conducted a safety education drive for motorists at the Toll Naka by checking if vehicles had reflectors and fixing reflectors on vehicles that did not have them. This was done free of cost to the motorists. They were also educated on the importance of wearing seat belts and jackets.  January 2^nd was also observed as an Accident Victims’ Remembrance Day by the RTO by organising a programme at Bhakti Shakti Park. About 3000 people attended the event at which the noted cartoonist Mangesh Tendulkar was the chief guest. Accident victims were remembered by lighting candles and observing a two-minute silence.  Family members of road accident victims and accident survivors recounted their experiences and passed on moving messages of road safety to the audience. On January 3^rd an educational-cum-enforcement programme was held to check if motorists in the Pimpri area were observing the rules for wearing helmets. A medical check-up of the drivers of the PCMC (Pune Chinchwad Municipal Corporation), police drivers and auto-rickshaw drivers was also conducted by doctors from the PCMC hospital, conducting eye tests and other general fitness tests. On January 5^th and 6^th school children from the seventh to ninth standards from about 40-50 schools held rallies displaying placards on road safety and staged street shows and plays, called Path Natya with the themes of road safety, and how accidents occur. Motor driving schools from the Pimpri-Chinchwad area also conducted essay writing competitions, painting competitions, educating school children in road safety. On Jan 7^th the RTO conducted a training programme in Junnad area of Pimpri in which school children were given demonstrations how to walk safely on roads, precautions to be taken while crossing roads, and while riding bicycles. On the same day safety training programmes were held at the Vignahar Sahakari Sakhar Kharkhana, a sugar factory in the Junnad area. Bullock carts and tractors were fitted with reflectors and bullocks were painted with radiant paint on their horns to increase visibility during night. About 500 bullock carts and tractors participated in the programme. A similar programme was also held at the Sant Tukaram Sahakari Kharkhana sugar factory. On January 10^th the PC RTO organised a Road Safety Patrol (RSP) rally of about 1200 school children. Lectures on road safety were delivered and fire safety drills were conducted. A live demonstration of a fire and the techniques to extinguish the fire was shown by the state’s fire safety department, demonstrating how to extinguish fires, On Jan 14^th a seminar on the role and contribution of the three Es in road safety –  enforcement, engineering, education and emergency response will be conducted at the Central Institute of Road Training, Bhosari, Pune. The police department will represent enforcement, the State Education Department and the Motor Vehicles Department will represent education while the city hospitals will represent emergency response. The PC RTO and Baramati RTO have been conducting a Road Safety promotion campaign on the radio, on FM Pune from January 5-15. The programmes consist of quizzes on road safety and interviews of different people on their experiences on the road and their views on road safety. The programme also keeps a watch on prominent traffic intersections in the city. People who observe traffic rules diligently are felicitated later, on the radio programme.