13 per cent drop in road accidents in Himachal in 2023: Dy CM Agnihotri

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], January 24 (ANI): Himachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said that the state saw a 13 per cent drop in the number of road accidents in 2023 and he also announced a Rs 5,000 award to a person who takes an injured person to the hospital.
After flagging off the road safety walk in Shimla, Agnihotri who is also the transport minister of state, said that there has been a decrease of nearly 13 per cent in road accidents in the state. He also said that along with road safety the government is firm in curbing drug abuse.
The event was organised by over 12 cultural associations along with Secretriat Sport Control Board and State Transport department
"We have started a road safety campaign till April, I am thankful to the employees, associations and others. The involvement of secretariat employees is important. Annually nearly 1000 people die due to road accidents and we are working to reduce it. Today we have people carrying the placards which are showing the message for road safety. We also want to educate people and we have also organised for women empowerment and take their experience.
"We have zero tolerance towards drugs in the state. So far in synthetic drugs we have caught nearly 15kg Chitta(heroin) in the state and 16000 cases have been registered and 2000 people have been booked. We have also appealed to the secretariat Association to work against drugs. This road safety with participation of secretriat employees is a new beginning. We have reduced 13 per cent road accidents. The road accidents are / mostly happening due to the human error. We have also announced that we shall pay a 5000 rupees award to a person who takes an injured person to the hospital," He said
Rajesh Bhardwaj, head of the cultural club of HP Secretariat said that this road safety is important.
"This road safety walk is important. We are walking from the secretariat to the mall road here. We are making people aware about the road safety norms. We are all from sports and cultural clubs of the secretriat employees. It is good to be part of this campaign,"
Manjit Bansal, a woman participant said that we need to make people all aware about the road safety.
"We are happy to organise this awareness walk from Secretriat and also people from the transport department are making people aware about the road safe from these kinds of awareness campaigns. We need to make people all aware about the road safety and it's important that we follow all road safety norms. We are making people aware about the road safety we should follow the guidelines by police for road safety and for walk pathways." (ANI)