It is heartening to note that the government has embarked on a project titled ‘Vehicle Driving Training’ to train 40,000 youths as skilled drivers in order to ensure road safety and prevent road crashes.
It is envisaged that the project will help make roads safer on the one hand and create jobs and self-employment opportunities in the transport sector for a vast segment of the unemployed youth on the other. We hope that the project will open up overseas job opportunities for the trained youth.
The project proposal rightly states that millions of vehicles are being added to the fleet of vehicles in the country every year, but there is no training center at the government level to create adequate number of skilled drivers in the country to operate these vehicles. However, at the private level and at the initiative of individuals, some organizations are producing semi-skilled and unskilled drivers. As a result, fatal and tragic accidents are constantly taking place.
We hope that the project will open up
overseas job opportunities
for the trained youth
Experts blame unskilled drivers and reckless driving as the core reasons behind the alarming number of road accidents. It is disconcerting to note that many bus owners recruit drivers considering personal relationship and recommendations of known people without properly examining their driving skill. In order to reinforce road safety transport owners must scrutinize the driving skill of the drivers before recruiting.
We have cone to know that a number of unscrupulous BRTA officials provide licence to the unskilled drivers without taking any test. Thus BRTA is creating room for unskilled drivers to take hold of the city roads and highways. It needs no emphasising that as long as the unethical practice of giving license to the unskilled drivers is not stopped, the grisly procession of deaths on the roads would continue unabated.
Unskilled drivers of vehicles, most often not having a legal licence, should be identified and punished. In this regard, a strong monitoring body equipped with modern technology
and adequate manpower should be devised immediately.