Social Sanchar With Dr. Avinash Dhakne, Transport Commissioner Maharashtra on 10th March 2021

When
March 10,2021 @ 6.30pm - 7.30pm

SAFETY FIRST

On Wednesday, 10th of March 2021, the concluding Day of the 50th National Safety Week Campaign, which had begun on 4th March, V Citizens Action Network (VCAN) organised a public interaction with, Maharashtra’s Commissioner of Transport Dr. Avinash Dhakne. 

The interactive session was a fully digital Social Sanchar, and was broadcast live on Facebook and YouTube, and viewers across the city primarily and also from across the globe, joined.

Smt. Indrani Malkani, Chairman and Managing Trustee of VCAN, welcomed the viewers and began the session by reiterating that, At All Times and Always, “Safety FIRST”!
She cited the report by PTI 21st January 2021, Maharashtra is one of the worst-hit states in terms of road accidents. In 2020, the state had witnessed 25,456 road accidents and 11,452 fatalities.
Keeping the above statistics in mind, Smt. Malkani highlighted some relevant points related to the evening’s session;

• Safety is everybody’s business – how do we go about it
• How much do we know about all the Motor Vehicles Rules
• How can we reduce accidents?
• What is an RTO and what are its roles?
• How many RTO are in Maharashtra?
• Are there new processes with respect to renewal of driving licenses, new licenses, PUC? Are there any special consideration for senior citizens?

She also gave a brief introduction about the RTO and the NSC;
In the State of Maharashtra, the RTO (Regional Transport Office) is assigned the responsibility of taking care of

• the public transportation system,
• management of vehicle registration,
• issuance of driving licences and vehicle-related permits,
• keeping a check on vehicular pollution
• duly collecting road tax

This department is headed by the Transport Commissioner.
Every State and city have their own RTO and every R.T.O is responsible to carry out the functions and activities that are laid out in Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

National Safety Council (NSC) was set up by the Ministry of Labour, Government of India (GOI) to generate, develop and sustain a voluntary movement on Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) at the national level. The NSC facilitates organisations in celebrating/observing various campaigns viz.  National Safety Day/Week, Fire Service Week, World Environment Day and Road Safety Week.

Smt. Malkani warmly welcomed Maharashtra’s Commissioner of Transport Dr. Avinash Dhakne and invited the viewers to freely interact with him.

Before inviting the Guest Speaker to address the session, Smt. Malkani gave a very brief introduction about VCAN, its overarching objective, which is to establish effective linkages between Government and Citizens by working in partnership with several Government Authorities. She mentioned the focus areas of work of VCAN and its interactive Web Portal and the live interactive talk show titled TogetherVCAN’s Social Sanchars with Senior Government Officials as Guest Speakers and also about the new series ‘Health and Wellbeing’ with leading Doctors and Healthcare Professionals as Speakers.

Smt. Malkani then conveyed her grateful thanks to VCAN’s Support Partner for the evening’s Social Sanchar, AFL Private Limited.

She thanked VCAN’s Implementing Partner Citizens Association for Child Rights (CACR) and she specially thanked the Student Council, the NSS Students and all the Students of VCAN’s College Partner Jai Hind College and all the other *Colleges who have associated with VCAN.

She also thanked Team Teknowlegion for powering the fully digital Social Sanchars and for keeping VCAN’s Web Portal going, VCAN’s social media consultant Shri. Sumit Lulla, all viewers, colleagues and networking partners and friends in the media.

To see the list of *colleges, Click here

Smt. Malkani shared the format flow of the Social Sanchar to viewers and to Dr. Dhakne. Thereafter she invited her fellow trustee Shri. V. Ranganathan, a former Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai, and who has also led the State of Maharashtra as the Chief Secretary, to introduce the Guest Speaker.

To view the brief profile of Dr. Avinash Dhakne , Click here

The opening remarks by Dr. Avinash Dhakne were detailed and answers to most questions were addressed, please see the video to get a comprehensive understanding.

Dr. Dhakne spoke with great clarity on various aspects related to Road Safety, the Road Users, about the Role of Civil Society and about the various Authorities associated with aspects of Road Safety. Some highlights of the issues that came through from the Dr. Dhakne’s opening remarks and from questions received are shared below:

• Almost everyone uses roads and safety on roads is related to everyone
• Road Safety is predictable, hence what we can predict, we can prevent
• How to inculcate good habits related to road safety
• Having road safety guidelines incorporated in syllabus as a mandatory subject in schools and studied similar to environmental studies
• Poor condition of vehicles causes unsafe condition – often people buy vehicles from a junkyard, fabricate the car and register it under fake pretences
• Challenges related to wrong and improper parking of vehicles
• By following rules, we can prevent accidents and road fatalities
• Explained the hierarchy of vulnerable road users starting with pedestrians, cyclists and ending with heavy duty vehicles
• Comparison with Corona Pandemic and the adopting safety behaviour, we can also adopt safe behaviour where road safety is concerned

Just as a person follows all protocols and is cautious about the Covid-19 pandemic, similarly, people should follow road safety rules.
Mask, sanitising/ washing hands social distancing, similarly wearing Seatbelt, helmet and maintaining speed, will reduced road fatalities by 60 to 70 percent

• Fine enhancements should be implemented
• About the Government initiative which has ensured the availability of ambulances in areas prone to accidents

Please watch Dr. Avinash Dhakne’s full session click here

The opening remarks from Dr. Dhakne starts at 11:05 minutes click here

Dr. Dhakne’s Q&A starts at 32:35 minutes click here

For all queries related to the Maharashtra RTO, please use the RTO Helpline Call Centre: +91 1800 120 8040

The Maharashtra Transport Department website: https://transport.maharashtra.gov.in/1035/Home 

Dr. Avinash Dhakne lost his connectivity just before the session was to end.
Smt. Malkani conveyed to the viewers that the National Safety Council (NSC) has published a Pledge, which was to be administered by Dr. Dhakne. However, since he was unable to finally connect, Smt. Malkani read out the Pledge, which encompasses all aspects of Safety.

To view the PDF of the Pledge published by National Safety Council, click here

Smt. Malkani then ended the session by thanking the viewers for joining the session and ended the digital Social Sanchar.

To view the video of the session, click here

All our articles are periodically updated.