Lucknow, June 3 (Representative) Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday asserted that every citizen has the right to a smooth and safe journey and said that it is the responsibility of the government to fulfill this right with the utmost sincerity and honesty, considering the trust with which a passenger travels.” Flagging off 93 new Rajdhani bus services and 7 regular BS-6 buses, the CM said, “The statistics of deaths resulting from road accidents are extremely alarming. If we were to present the figures of road accidents for UP within a year, a horrific scenario would unfold. “He said that more lives are lost due to road accidents in the last one year than Covid claimed in three years. “Road accidents occur and innocent lives are lost due to over speeding, poor road engineering or due to violations of traffic rules,” he said. Yogi stressed that increasing awareness and obeying the rules of the road can save many lives. “Every life is precious to us and it is also an invaluable asset for a family, a society, and a country,” he said. He appealed for a campaign to increase awareness and prevent traffic accidents and the deaths they cause. He said that launching a comprehensive awareness campaign to prevent deaths from such accidents would be a national programme.
The CM said, “The central government and the Supreme Court have also expressed concerns about this issue repeatedly. On this occasion, arrangements should be made to enhance the existing programmes of the UP State Road Transport Corporation in a more effective manner. It should be our goal to provide this type of service to people who want to use the corporation’s buses for public transportation within UP. “He mentioned that, if required, we will have to associate private operators with regulations to provide transportation and bus services to every village. “If we can provide this facility to every village, it will be convenient for the people and they will utilise public transport services,” he said. Discussing the increasing demand for electric buses, Yogi said that wherever electric bus services have been initiated, there is a new demand among the people. “We have currently started electric bus service in 10 cities of UP. Wherever we go, people are requesting us to start electric bus services in their areas as well. On this occasion, I would like to say that the time has come to ensure that bus stations are well-maintained, safe and our bus services are in line with the demands of the people,” he said.
He asserted that it is not necessary for us to solely rely on government funding to expand the fleet of the Transport Corporation. “Our efforts should focus on increasing the existing resources of the Transport Corporation and involving private operators so that every village, every city is connected with excellent bus services. This will not only help in reducing the number of deaths caused by road accidents in UP but also bring the fatality rate to a minimum level,” he said. Earlier, the CM congratulated the UPSRTC on completing 50 years of journey. He mentioned that just a few months before independence on May 15, 1947, a state-owned transportation service was initiated in UP with the aim of providing smooth and safe travel to people. He said, “This state-owned transportation service eventually progressed into the UPSRTC on June 1, 1972, becoming the largest unit of public transport in the state with the largest population in the country. “Transport Minister Daya Shankar Singh, Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, Chairman of UPSRTC Prashant Trivedi, Principal Secretary of Transport, Venkateshwar Lu, Managing Director Masoom Sarwar and other officials of the transport department were present on the occasion.