PANAJI
The Congress has served a 15-day ultimatum to the Goa government to start rectifying the already identified ‘black spots’ on the State’s road network, citing the recent spate of accidents which claimed several lives.
The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President, Amit Patkar, has written a letter to Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel, demanding that the Director of Transport be sacked and the ‘black spots’ be rectified.
Patkar has also asked Goel to issue directions to the relevant departments to come out with an effective traffic management plan so that accidents are minimized and lives saved.
In the letter, Patkar said the Congress had last week held a protest against the government’s failure to control the rising number of road accidents in the State and when they reached the Transport Department the Director was on leave and the Deputy Director was in no position to explain the steps taken to check mishaps.
“The present Director of Transport is most insensitive and arrogant. We have observed that the Transport Department has not done any follow-up with the PWD on rectifying the black spots and accident-prone zones in Goa,” Patkar said in the letter to Goel.
Listing the Transport Department’s failures, Patkar said it has failed to recover up to Rs 230.5 crore due from 29 companies as ‘Rural Welfare Cess’, failed to conduct safety audits of KTC public transport buses as well as ‘Bal Raths’ which transport students to schools.
“We demand that the Director of Transport be removed immediately and a competent officer be appointed,” Patkar said.
