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Andhra asked to shut down liquor shops on highways

The Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety has instructed the Andhra Pradesh government to immediately shut down the 800-odd liquor shops that dot the National and State Highways in the State. The directive follows the growing number of road accidents in AP.
In a letter to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary I Y R Krishna Rao, the committee, headed by Justice K S Radhakrishnan, also asked the government to prepare a hoarding policy to remove from National and State Highways all hoardings that distract drivers.
The strongly-worded letter sought urgent action against road safety violations as more than 8,000 people died in road accidents in 2014 alone in AP.
"Most of the directions issued by the Supreme Court panel have been implemented in the State. But, to implement some other guidelines, we need to get an approval from the cabinet," a senior officer in the Transport Department said.
The committee also asked the State Transport Commissioner to submit a detailed report on accidents so that it could take up the matter with automobile manufacturers.
AP has achieved the dubious distinction of accounting for more than 25 per cent of fatal accidents involving passengers of auto-rickshaws in the country. As many as 1,734 persons died in road accidents involving auto-rickshaws and the state has the highest number of such deaths in India. About 8.9 per cent of all accidents in the country occur in the state.
All states were earlier given time till June 30 to enforce a set of 13 directions issued by the apex committee, including removal of roadside advertisments and ban on alcohol sale on National Highways. As some states have requested more time to comply with the directions, the deadline has now been extended to December 31.
The committee has so far submitted three reports to the Supreme Court in which it has pointed out serious lapses in implementation of safety laws by states, resulting in increase in the number of road accidents.
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The committee advised the government to appoint an agency with senior officers to implement road safety measures.
It also wanted the government to prepare a draft policy or protocol to be followed for better safety.

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