Guwahati: Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Sunday (September 8, 2024) directed the law enforcement agencies to draw up a comprehensive report on the liquor shops functioning within 100 metres of the national highways after which the state government would take necessary steps to shift them.
This comes as an attempt to prevent the road accidents caused due to drunken driving resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries.
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The Supreme Court in December 2017 had banned the sale of liquor within 500 metres of the outer edge of the national and state highways.
Later, it was reduced to 220 metres for areas having a population of 20,000 or less.
During a programme on road safety in Agartala, CM Saha said that the state recorded as many as 1,340 deaths and 3,724 injuries in a total of 3,307 road accidents since 2018.
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The Chief Minister said that though the number of road accidents seems to be less as compared to the total 7,87,203 vehicles in the state, the police and other law enforcement agencies need to work to reduce the fatal road accidents.
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He said that the law enforcement agencies should prepare a list of the liquor shops operating within 100 metres of the outer edge of the national highways as drunken driving is one of the reasons that leads to fatal road accidents.
CM Saha instructed the police to make wearing of seat belts mandatory while driving as the state is yet to implement it.
The Northeastern state witnesses around 700 to 750 road accidents annually with 200 to 250 people succumbing to the injuries.
Of the total number of registered vehicles in Tripura, more than five lakh are two-wheelers that ply on the state’s roads.
The Chief Minister said that most of the deaths in road accidents are more or less due to not wearing helmets.
He said that though the state has been using modern and latest equipment to reduce the number of road accidents, awareness is the key to address the issue.