Citizen participation is a key factor to increase the success rate of any initiative or planning rolled out by the authorities. Involving the locals, doesn't just make them feel heard but also makes way for better solutions while invoking a sense of ownership amongst them. In the same strive, a new Road Safety Campaign by the UP govt will soon be carried out with a focus on citizen involvement. To be rolled out after May 18, this initiative is aimed at making roads safer for all.

In a bid to instil road safety measures and traffic rules in the minds of children through this program, awareness campaigns will be organised in schools. Talking about the same, the CM said, Principals/headmasters/representatives of the university should be trained in relation to traffic rules. The schools must hold meetings with parents and 'Prabhat Pheri' should be taken out by school children to create awareness on road safety."

Under the ambit of this campaign, the officials will develop a plan of action in sync with all the concerned department to highlight the need of road safety. This includes the police, traffic, basic education, secondary education, technical education, higher education, transport, urban development and the Public Works Department, among others.

In addition to this, the campaign will be mapped out to cover other aspects like road engineering, enforcement, trauma care and public awareness as well. Moreover, this initiative will also help ensuring all the buses plying across the state meet the standards set by the government. Buses found violating the prescribed standard will not be allowed to move on the road.

Apart from raising awareness, directions have been given to pay special attention to designing speed breakers in a scientific manner. It has been noted that instead of increasing road safety, poorly-designed speed bumps lead to a lot of accidents. This Road Safety Campaign is expected to solve this road-infrastructure related problem too.

-with inputs from IANS.