A short play on road safety measures will be staged at every Assam government function to create awareness and help bring down the number of accidents, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday.

He also instructed utilisation of social media to reach out to people, especially youngsters, for creating awareness on safe driving.

Chairing a review meeting on road safety, Sarma directed staging a three-minute live drama at every government function on the theme.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had adopted a similar approach as Gujarat chief minister which focussed on female foeticide and got positive results.

“When Modiji was Gujarat CM, he had used the idea of staging a three-minute drama at every government function on the topic. He told me it had yielded positive results,” Sarma said.

“Instead of spending time on felicitations and lighting of lamps, we can stage a three-minute drama on how families of road accident victims are impacted,” he added.

He asked the Cultural Affairs department to conceive the idea of the drama which will be enacted across the state, with the first performance to be made during a chief minister’s programme in upper Assam this month-end.

In 2022, the state lost 2,994 lives in road accidents, the highest among Northeastern states. Assam was placed 18th in the all-India list of road accident fatalities last year.

As many as 79 per cent of these deaths were in the 18-45 years age group, which is considered the most productive period in a person’s life.

Speeding accounted for nearly 68 per cent of the deaths last year, while drunken driving, use of mobile phone, driving on wrong side and jumping red light were among other causes.

Sarma also instructed use of social media to reach out to youngsters on road safety measures and hire social media experts for deeper penetration.

“Let us make videos on specific accidents, narrating how it occurred, the condition of the victim’s family and end with a pledge that we will not make the same mistakes. Videos should be of people whom the general public can relate to,” he said.

He stressed on utmost sensitivity while making the videos as these will be dealing with real cases and said it should be ensured that the deceased are not defamed in any nature.

“The videos should be educational in nature, showing the agony and misery of the families so that others are more cautious while driving,” the CM said.

Along with focusing on ‘behavioural changes’ through these measures, he also emphasised on correcting road engineering-related aspects, like proper speed breakers, street lights and rectifying ‘dark spots’ on national highways.

“As many as 1,436 people have been killed in road accidents in Assam this year so far. We need to bring this figure down. From now on, we will be reviewing district specific data and progress made in checking road accidents every three months,” Sarma added. PTI SSG SSG MNB

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