Playing the role of a guardian of the 24 crore population of the state, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed concern over road accidents and issued a passionate appeal to the people to follow all traffic rules.

He said that road accidents might have come down in recent years but about 65 people were still losing their lives every day in road mishaps.

The chief minister, who launched the Road Safety Month from his official residence on Thursday, said drunken driving, using mobile phones while driving, over speeding, not wearing seat belts and such similar small mistakes resulted in road accidents and the entire family had to pay for the mistake of a single person.

Insisting upon keeping vigil while driving or traversing through the roads, the chief minister said what it all required was to be alert, vigilant and aware of the traffic rules which could save thousands of lives. “Poor road engineering, high speeding and illegal cuts on expressways are also a big cause of road accidents. The departments concerned should pay special attention to these lapses and this special campaign has been organised to spread awareness among people,” the chief minister said.

Empasising on spreading awareness among schoolchildren during the Road Safety Month, the chief minister said that the sense of traffic awareness and road safety should be instilled in children from the very beginning. “They would remain aware of it throughout their life. Special programmes should be held in schools regarding road safety and traffic rules,” he said.

He directed the officials to deploy nodal officers in every district during the month.

The qualification of the concerned person should be properly tested by the licensing authorities before issuing a driving licence, the chief minister said, and expressed the hope that the campaign would help a lot in preventing road accidents.

The chief minister also dedicated and laid the foundation stones of various projects of the Transport department worth Rs 55.70 crore. These include the construction of bus stations, automatic driving tracks and renovation works in different districts of the state.

During the programme, the chief minister also administered the oath to the people to follow traffic rules and drive safely.

“Every seventh person of the state is affected by road accidents taking place in the country. Keeping this in mind, continuous efforts are being made to create awareness among the people about road safety and traffic rules” Minister of State for Transport (independent charge) Ashok Katariya said.

An awareness rally was also flagged off by the chief minister and the Pink Patrol, emergency vehicles, LED vans, vintage vehicles and the Transport department participated in the rally. All the vehicles had messages requesting everyone to follow traffic rules. Through the rally, the people were also explained the importance of complying with the traffic rules and appealed to follow traffic rules.