Himachal Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri has emphasized on complete restriction of pressure horns in the state.

Directing to prepare the Road Safety Act and Rules as per Apex court recommendations, Agnihotri who also holds the Transport department portfolio said on Saturday that the state government is going to launch a special campaign against the prohibited pressure horns creating noise pollution.

While presiding over the 4th meeting of the HP State Transport Development and Road Safety Council here, he said that the Transport department along-with the Police and Environment department will jointly conduct the campaign.

“Campaigns and initiatives need to be launched to create awareness about the effects of the noise pollution which also can lead to various health issues adding that the education department can play a pivotal role in creating mass awareness,” he said.

He also directed that a ‘No Horn’ campaign should be launched in Shimla city to control noise pollution and that ‘No Horn’ awareness booklets should be distributed throughout the state.

Agnihotri suggested that surveillance cameras should be installed in a phased manner at border areas, especially from Paonta Sahib to Una to monitor and prevent illegal activities related to road safety.He informed about preparation of the Road Safety Act and Rules to strengthen road safety.

He directed that the Road Safety Act should be prepared and proposals should be sent as needed.

Discussing the annual action plan for the financial year 2024-25 as per the directions of the Supreme Court the proposals and activities to be included into the action plan has been taken from all the 12 districts Road Safety Committees and were sent to Head of the Departments (HoDs) of respective stakeholder departments namely Police, Transport, Health, Public Works and Education for compilation.

The State Level Managing Committee has accorded in principle approval of Rs 2393 crore lakh with the directions to revise the plan as per the priority and mandate of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety (SCCoRS).

Directing for conducting the meeting at least twice in a year, Agnihotri pointed out that steps should be taken to make the certification system for fitness of motor vehicles fully automatic and effective.

He said the steps need to be taken to rectify all the spots and the senior officers of the council should also go on the spots where repeated accidents take place so as to analyze the exact cause of mishap.

Agnihotri said Himachal Pradesh has witnessed reduction in road accidents by 13 percent and fatalities by 14.6 percent respectively, during the year 2023 in comparison to 2022.

From 1 January till 31 July, this year there was 7.7 per cent reduction in road accidents, 17.3 per cent reduction in deaths and 1.4 percent reduction in injuries.

The district prone to major accidents as per tabulated data was Shimla, followed by Kangra and Mandi.

It was highlighted that the PWD authorities need to focus themselves more on the black spots and installation of signages besides the gradient of roads and put it in records.

Agnihotri directed for the installation of cameras particularly in bordering areas right from Paonta Sahib to Nurpur, which will not only help capturing the overspending but also will be quite fruitful in checking the illegal activities along bordering states.

Besides, the laser speed guns to be set up to control rash and drunk and drive