Following regulations and guidelines will not reduce productivity

There is always a tussle between the production manager and that of safety / regulator. It may not appear openly, but in private discussions, this is the reality. Each will have choicest words or opinions about the other.

When role reversal happens, they will assume new position and behave accordingly. This is because of short term / immediate gains one may achieve by overlooking SOPs or due to the infrequent losses suffered from incidents/accidents by not following safety which they feel that it can be absorbed.

Production managers realize only when the losses are huge and may lead to framing of charges or closure of the factory. But, it will be late.

It is proven that following safety always makes sense and leads to increase in productivity.
And this can be made realized by charging penalties on every violation from the salary of the individuals and as a percentage of turnover  of the factory.

This will help in creating work atmosphere safe as well as for public also and at the same time will make others to learn from the sufferers.

Some measures for improving environment

With time, villages are becoming towns, towns to cities, cities to metros. Increased urbanization is demanding development of infrastructure. Once barren lands or green areas are now become concrete structures. 

There is demand for land, water, electricity, roads, houses, etc. Increased population is leading to more and more vehicles on the roads and pollution levels are on the rise. There are vehicles everywhere on the road. Persons are not considering having own parking areas inside their buildings. Vehicles are parked on the public roads leading to congestion. 

Cold and fever which were once seen for short duration are now not cured even after a month of suffering. 

To improve environment, I feel that we should fix population density in terms of number of persons per unit area. Along with it, we also need to fix green density. Town planners need to consider this while issuing permission. There should not be any scope for regularization of unauthorized constructions. If anybody violates, instead of regularization, penalties need to be collected and the ownership of  illegally constructed properties should go to government. No appeal shall be entertained in this regard.

Similarly, owners of vehicles parked on the roads shall be punished.

Rainwater harvesting and soak pits shall be part of every area developed. The percentage of area for this also should be fixed and to be followed.

For existing buildings, time frame of six months or one year to be given and these requirements to be complied. There should not be any extensions. And huge penalties to be imposed on violators. 

On my commute to workplace, I see places with no water and wastage of water. People use water for washing and the washed water flows on the water. In some areas, people wait for water tankers to collect the little whatever they can get hold. Every service should be charged for its actual cost. 

28 years after Bhopal accident - lessons not learnt by others

It is 28 years now after the occurrence of Bhopal accident on 2/3 Dec 1984. As is widely reported, it happened because of,

1. engaging no so well versed technicians at the time of the incident
2. no proper training to employees, local government agencies including health department, nearby residents
3. storage of excessive quantities of MIC
4. non-availability / switching off of safety systems, like, refrigeration to maintain at 2 deg C temperature, maintenance taken up for scrubber and flare systems
5. starting of cleaning of lines also during the non-availability of emergency systems
6. any safety permit was taken for cleaning of lines (is not known)

Murphy's law was proved in this accident. None of us learnt the lessons from this accident. Though, there was initial euphoria, it did not last long. Though the scale of the accidents is not like Bhopal accident, we read / learnt about occurrence of so many accidents.

We continue to engage cheap labour, without providing them any training. Most of the labour are daily workers. A person coming today may not be coming tomorrow or next week. The safety systems provided are not tested, or, they are only show pieces for regulatory agencies. The large number of accidents that appear in media is a proof of this as in many of the organizations in which accidents occur engage short term workers. The reasons for many of these accidents are also simple and are avoidable. It is not that some complex and unknown thing happened leading to such accidents.

We also continue to discharge effluents / offgases / solid wastes into environment. Large quantities of dangerous materials are transported through public domain, probably, without the knowledge of local government agencies. All these can affect the health of the people if not immediately, but over a long period of time.

The most common finding of CSB during their investigations is lack of training. Training and retraining programmes should be established and examinations should be conducted for the employees to put them in to service. It is not sufficient to cut the incentive which is paid for acquiring and renewing operators' licence after passing out the examinations. Such failed employees should not be engaged for plant operations till they pass out. And while evaluating the performance, it should be ensured that they answer all questions and not that because they answered 50% or so, they can be passed. Because, any mistake can lead to accidents greatly affecting the people and environment.

Plants should have policy of not operating the plant in case of failure of any of the safety systems. And ensure monitoring of the plant even when it is under shutdown.

Plants should realise that safety department alone can't guaranty safety as they are not operating the plant and they do not have the knowledge as good as actual plant operators. Further, how many organisations give serious thought to the advice of safety department. Many times, they are projected as hindrance for production and any production loss is attributed to as obstacles from safety department.

Government and regulators should make start a website with different categories and or key words for publishing all accidents, investigation reports from both the concerned company as well as regulators/government agencies. Governments should encourage all companies to upload about accidents and incidents in government website as per the category and should assure that those who reveal accidents immediately after occurrence in the website and also upload investigation reports say within 3-6 months will not be prosecuted for criminal proceedings. But penalties and compensation as applicable have to be borne by the company.
We can't expect organisations to run for charity, but they should ensure safety of their employees, public and environment and in this process they should not bypass safety procedures. 

Fall from height - wrong use of forklift - firm penalized

In an incident, two staff of a door fitting firm strapped a wooden crate to a forklift to go up and fix a motor on the wall for a rolling shutter. The person was lifted on the attachment made to forklift and when he turned to pick tools, the crate tipped, person fell by 5 m height after losing balance and received fracture injuries. He was operated upon. HSE investigated the incident, prosecuted the employer and imposed a fine of 1000 pounds and 1870 pounds for costs because of poor planning for work at height and violation of work at height regulations.
In many work places, it is common to see abuse of forklifts. They are used for double/triple/ quadruple riding, joy riding, to go to other departments on personal work, use forks for reaching an elevation instead of using ladder, etc. Employees also do not listen to safety supervisor's objection and it is distressing to watch that even in-charges also take it as normal and no other go option.
In a regional movie which I saw several years ago, the hero who is MD of a soft drink company (brand displayed is reputed) and his friend both stand on the forks with hands resting on the body and moving around. I do not understand how the company allowed such act in their premises, while permitting the film unit for shooting.
Fatalities, injuries like amputation due to trapping between moving fork and stationary mast, hit against, loss of control due to driving at speed, toppling while driving on inclined roads or at high speed or loose ground, etc were reported and one can find such case studies in internet. Still, people take it as one-off incident or of the attitude that it will not happen to them.
Safety at work place can be improved only when fellow employees question unsafe practices and force the violators to stop such acts.Good words and rules will have impact on those who listen but not on wishful violators.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2012/rnn-em-173.htm?eban=rss-

Contract workers - no concern for their safety?

Safety of contract workers is given less importance compared to regular employees. In industrial areas, we can find this difference glaringly. Even the contractor who provides manpower also is not concerned though he may be charging the organization for use of safety appliances by his personnel. These daily wage earners are treated like no entity and the contractors who earn money by using these people are nothing short of leeches. Factory managements and factory inspectors should penalize heavily such contractors so that they feel it is better to provide safety appliances rather than paying the penalty. Ordering the closure of factory also will do good as managements can ensure safety for contract workers also by whatever means it is appropriate. Sometime back I listened to a talk wherein the speaker said that the contractor will be penalized Rs. 5,000/- for every violation and this money is credited into safety awareness fund. After three violations, the contractor will be blacklisted. I feel such measures will help in creating awareness by force among all and ensure safety for all.

Road safety - Heavy penalties for traffic offences

As per a report in the year 2010, 1.3 lakh persons died due to road accidents. A study reveals road accidents cost the nation about Rs 1,00,000 crore.  There will be many road accidents which go unreported and authorities come to know of the accidents only when persons are seriously injured and require medical help.
Government proposes to penalize heavily those caught on the road with drunken driving/mobile use during driving/over speeding/jumping the signal/driving without helmet or seatbelt/using vehicle without registration. The government proposes penalties for first offence ranging from Rs 500 to 10,000 and for subsequent offences upto Rs 20,000. Dangerous driving and mobile use invite jail term also upto 2 years.
On this aspect, in earlier post way back in the year 2008-9, I felt the same.

Apart from penalising those with dangerous/unsafe driving, pedestrians crossing the roads without waiting for easing of road traffic, roadside business persons encroaching the roads, persons parking vehicles on the road also should be penalised heavily as they are also responsible for a number of road accidents and deaths.
And those caught with traffic offences should be forced to work on social service activities like cleaning the roads, schools, performing traffic control duties, etc.

Many times, to save the persons on the roads, vehicle drivers move away  and this during speed causes skidding/loosing control/hitting the road divider or street pole, etc leading to fall of the driver, toppling of the vehicle, hitting some other person/vehicle, etc and injury/death.

Government proposes to use 50% of the fines collected to use for road safety fund. Apart from this, I wish government gives 25% of the fines collected as incentive to the traffic police. In my earlier posts on the same topic, I opined to give some basic salary to the traffic police and allow them to take penalty amount as their income. This will also reduce burden on the government to maintain huge staff and encourage to recruit more and more traffic police all over the country by respective authorities. I also suggested in earlier posts to takeover properties of offending drivers/vehicle owners to teach lessons for life. In a situations where words are not enough, only actions / measures like above will control road accidents and save lakhs of lives.

Industrial courts - concept from Australia

A company was fined by an industrial court for safety violations leading to a nearmiss incident that could have caused several fatalities. Exclusive industrial courts will help in speeding up the hearing and awarding judgement. If it goes to civil courts, with so many cases, industrial cases will be heard when their turn comes and justice will be delayed. Penalties also should be revised with emphasis on punishment in the form of imprisonment rather than on cash penalties which can lead to proactive measures rather than half-hearted measures.
After every accident, it is common to hear renewed commitment by the company management for health and safety of the employees and a list of measures taken or proposed for improving the workplace safety and environment.
In some industrial areas, the cost of establishing and establishing and maintaining local emergency response centers is borne by the industries in the area. Likewise, it should be made mandatory for industries in the area to contribute for industrial courts. If any company is found operating without contribution, it should be closed.
Relevant articles for this blog can be read here 1, 2, 3. 

Penalty for delayed reporting of incident

As per reports, a gas production facility will be penalized upto  $ 50,000 for alerting the authorities 2 hrs late about bursting of gas and salt water from one of its wells. This appears to be of very high standards, as generally many incidents including gas leak go without reporting.  In another facility of the same facility, spilled diesel was contained and contaminated soil was removed. Again, this is also great as nobody cares about spillages even outside facilities and replacing the soil within the facility is a good move. Australian authorities appear to be strict in respect of rules and regulations and is better for safety of the people, if it is implemented in toto everywhere.

Safety implementation - We are as good (and bad) as those in developed countries

I read a blog post today where it is mentioned that i) many managers consider safety implementation as a nuisance, reduces productivity ii) enforcement agencies are short of man power, iii) long battles in courts to penalize, iv) penalties are considered as added cost to the product rather than a warning for not following safety, and so on. The situation is not different here also.
Let it be any country, whatever be the rules and penalties or punishments are, it is the commitment of the management and its support that ensures safety at the workplace and this in the long run reduces the cost of production. Very few understand this as bypassing safety shows immediate increase in output, but in the long run leads to accidents as a result of fall in safety standards and reduces the productivity. One must remember that what we see today is the result of efforts (constructive or destructive) made in the past. One must not be elated and relax when going is smooth (safe) and should be on constant vigil and be committed to improve safety.
The blog post and comments under suggested that penalties should be on the persons rather than on the organization to warn the erring persons to implement safety. Though, we say occupier (the one who got ultimate control over the day-to-day affairs of the organization) is responsible, long delays in punishing the culprits are allowing them to run the organization as per their wishes. In this regard, the blog post suggested need for having industrial courts to handle such cases and give verdict quickly. Along with person based penalties, awarding of punishments also will act as a deterrent for the people to run organizations only for profit and drive them to implement good safety practices.

Process Safety Management - for whom?

Everybody says process safety management (PSM) without knowing or having commitment. Many may be thinking it as day-to-day plant operation. In this regard, to identify, evaluate and control hazards in chemical plants, OSHA has given guidelines and can be read here.
It must be understood that by doing PSM, we are doing favour to ourselves and not to others. Even, production cost can be brought down, if we do PSM sincerely and follow it. If we do not care to spillages/leakages of chemicals, air, steam; do not care to study in detail before going for a new process / chemical / modification; do not make checklists for operations, then it means that enough attention is not paid for plant operations and it adds to cost of production by way of wastage, inefficient operation, accidents, and so on.
We should not feel like Alice in the wonder land when the unidentified hazards manifest into incidents/ accidents. One may feel stressed to follow the safety principles all the while. But, the stress will be more and can also lead to penalties and punishments when there is loss of life/damage to environment/property.
Many times when we land into simple accidents outside factory, we vow not to repeat such mistakes. But, when we commit such mistakes in a factory, the consequences will be very high and at that time we can move the time back to correct our mistakes. There is no time machine yet available to correct ourselves otherthan following safety principles in toto.

Leniency to violators by authorities

Every day, we see reports of many accidents, incidents, violations by factories. There will be hue and cry for lenient attitude / laxity on the part of the regulating authorities. There will be injuries/fatalities/release of fumes, gases from plant to public domain/dumping of chemicals in the night in public areas/failure of containment from tankers, etc. Immediately, regulators are found fault for not keeping eye on violators. Regulators also visit the affected areas, factories and say that there is no licence for operation or matter is under investigation or notices are slapped, etc. The issue will be left. Media also will leave it as the importance is lost after the item is aired in all channels.
This is not happening in our country alone. When we see reports appearing in several websites of different countries, we come to know that this is worldwide phenomenon. Even, in countries where regulators are tough nuts, stiff penalties are imposed, still accidents/incidents/violations continue to occur and reasons seem to be silly. Though, many do not agree now-a-days that 'safety is nothing but common sense', still that common sense alone can prevent many accidents.
We are all greed and want to save few bucks by following short cuts. Finally, after sometime, everybody would have experienced a huge loss because of one accident and the loss far exceeds all savings accrued so far from short cut methods. Still, the lessons are confined to the affected individual alone and again the same individual will bypass safety after sometime, because our memory is short.
In such a situation, what a regulator can do is the big question, when we do not have self discipline. Then, we have to face the consequences and suffer.

Why people continue to do mistakes even after accidents take place

Many times people repeat same mistakes and similar accidents take place. Even if root cause analysis is done, still they fail to take preventive measures. This shows that they do not understand the value of life and are bothered only about their output minus safety. Driving the importance of safety into their heads is very difficult for safety officers. It is better to remove such people from the job if they do not listen.

Sometimes, the top man gives importance to safety but the leadership one step below do not have such importance and drive field engineers for output at shortest time and this leads to accidents. Instead of penalising the department, if penalties are collected from the salaries of such leaders and field engineers as well as from payments made to the contractors, then people may listen. Otherwise, they do not bother about safety measures at site and contractors will continue to do the work that maximizes their profits. Possibly the money spent on accident victims treatment / compensation must have been less over a period of time for these contractors.


LINK

Safety Practioner: A Pessimist? or A Visionary!!

A safety officer’s main role in the organization to help in hazard identification and thus he will have a hawk’s eye for hazards. The conditions which are normal for the plant personnel will be hazards in the eyes of safety man and thus when he tells shop floor persons about hazard and need for elimination, the safety man will be seen as a negative minded person. He may be scolded, chided and will be at receiving end depending upon the safety culture of the organization. If the safety officer is having thick skin, then he will not bother and will continue his work. If not, after sometime he may stop cautioning about hazards. If some unusual incident occurs, then again same safety person will be blamed for not identifying the hazard and intimating the concerned. He will be come pessimistic and all his goals / objective in the beginning of a career in safety will lead to total frustration and he will be at cross roads to do what. He will be stressful and it is not possible for any person to be optimistic for ever. Though pessimistic attitude is good for a safety man in hazard identification, when this reach his mind and carried to home, it may spoil his home life also. Over a period of time, he will be at peace neither at work place nor at home and will be blamed all around.

Therefore, it is important for safety professional to stay positive and exercise like walking will help him to stay fit, physically and mentally. Listening to music, attending cultural programmes and book reading are some of the activities which can help the person to lead a peaceful life. Similarly, visiting new places, monumental or religious or others, will fresh up the life.

If it is not possible to continue in the safety department, he can think of change of job. However, I know some persons who left their organizations in frustration continue to be frustrated and are frequent job changers.

There are many programmes available to take care of different professionals, but professionals who help the organizations to identify hazards are helped in identifying their hazards. These safety professionals have to take care of themselves and safe guard their health and life beyond office.

Once the person overcomes his stressful life because of his profession, still keeping his pessimistic approach, he can be helpful to the organization in hazard identification. A safety officer in an organization will have the moral responsibility of ensuring a safe work place and also see that management will not take wrong decisions because of his work methods. He has to envisage what can go wrong and provide feed back to the management in the form of reports regularly. He has to convey hazards along with the statutory requirments under which these are seen as violations and for thick skinned persons, safety officer should not hesitate in telling about the penalties / punishments one deserves for the violations. Though, punishments or penalties are seen as last resort and people say they are not helpful in straightening the organization, as we see the occurrence of incidents in well advanced countries and the penalties imposed by the regulators in these countries, there is no other solution.

In fact, organizations should develop their own penalty structure in terms of cash fine or reduced pay or suspension of the employee from work and termination as last resort. Then, everybody will have the fear of following safety priniciples which the management wants to follow. Of course, nothing can be done, if the management it self pays only lip service to safety.

Safety Legislations – History and Provisions

“Preventable accidents, if they are not prevented due to our negligence, it is nothing short of a murder” - Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, 1st Vice President and 2nd President of India.

Any factory that employs more than 10 persons and uses power for its operations is governed by Factories Act, 1948 and the Rules made there under. In addition, a factory has also to comply with other legislations for different activities in its premises. Many of us do not know about these legislations though with common sense we comply with some of the requirements of these legislations. Many managers, shop floor in-charges and even technicians feel that their productivity is hampered by legislations without which they would have produced much more.

However, it must be realized that laws are not formulated overnight. These are formulated based upon the experience of earlier accidents and its consequences, concern of all stake holders, concerted efforts by various persons, organizations some times even extending to decades. The legislations are compilation of lessons learnt from various past accidents in the world, not necessarily from the same country and thus a source of rich knowledge. By enactment in the parliament, compliance of provisions of legislations was made mandatory. I was told during my study of safety course by one faculty that "We have to learn the law in its letter and spirit to understand and apply to the work environment. Letter can be found in books for reading and spirit can be found from history".

Factory legislations in India are formulated by our pre-independence rulers i.e. Britishers and thus history is linked to development of legislations in the land our erstwhile rulers. The factories in UK during 18th century employed a number of people without basic amenities like water, clean air, ventilation, washing facility, illumination, toilets, etc and were forced to work in most dangerous conditions. Persons were forced to work for 12-16 hours without rest and even children were also employed in these conditions. At that time, most of the factories were cotton mills and many got injured, incapacitated, died due to lack of proper machine guards. With the advent of steam engine, the situation became worse. There were many steam leaks, burn injuries, boiler explosions, etc. Owners of these factories have no accountability for the loss of life and persons were removed if they got injured and not capable of doing the work. These incapacitated persons were not compensated and their lives were miserable. These conditions along with movement by workers and organizations lead to the enactment of first act in 1802 in UK and followed with many amendments by including many provisions for the betterment of working conditions. Factory inspectorates were also formed to monitor compliance with these legislations and were authorized to take necessary action.

Though similar pathetic conditions existed in Indian factories, it is not until 1881 that the Factories Act was passed in India and further in 1891, 1911, 1934 by including restricted hours of work for men and women, age of children to be employed, rest periods, hours of overtime in a week, employment of full time factory inspectors, paid holidays, etc. The Factories Act (FA) 1948 provides the minimum requirements with regards to i) obtaining licence for setting up of the factory, operating licence, need for authorization of changes in process; ii) health – cleanliness, disposal of wastes and effluents, ventilation, lighting, drinking water, toilets; iii) safety – machine guarding, maintenance and testing of hoists and lifts, pressure vessels, proper means of access, manual handling, work permit system, fire protection and fighting measures, guarding of openings, personal protective equipment, safety of buildings and machinery and iv) welfare – provision for washing, sitting, first aid, rest rooms, lunch rooms, canteen, etc. The amended FA, 1976 included safety of contract labour in the definition of workers and vested more powers with the factory inspectors.

The Bhopal accident in 1984 shook the entire world to relook into suitability of legislations in their land and provide for stringent requirements for compliance by industrial establishments.

Major amendments were made to the Indian Factories Act in 1987 by assigning the responsibilities for the occupier (Section 7-A), for the manufacturer (Sec 7-B), special provisions for hazardous processes (Chapter IV-A), onus of proving limits practicable (Sec 104-A) along with other provisions like safety policy, safe operating procedures, supervision, disclosure of information, medical examination, house keeping, training, emergency preparedness, accident reporting within the period and investigation, conduct of safety meetings, maintenance of permissible limits of chemicals, etc.

Similarly, penalties were made more stringent to force the establishments and its employees at all levels to ensure safe working conditions. The punishments for violation of each and any of the safety provisions of Factories Act and its Rules extended upto 2 years / fine and for special provisions (Chapter IV-A), upto 10 years. Even obstruction of factory inspector or failure to maintain / show registers or documents invites penalty upto 6 months and or fine.

Apart from the Factories Act, there are other legislations for handling of boilers, gas cylinders, chemicals, emissions / discharges, radioactive materials, electricity, disposal of effluents and wastes, noise, contract labour, etc. Penalties are also specified for violation of provisions under these legislations as well as under Indian Penal Code

Some of the best companies / manufacturing facilities issue safety regulations beyond what is required by Factories Act and others from time to time for various activities, sometimes even such a thing is not thought off by the government.

It must be noted that each and every activity in the work premises is governed by one regulation or other and employees at all levels are responsible for ensuring safety at the work place. Ignorance of law is not an excuse and law of the land is applicable.

We have to prevent accidents at the work place not only because of legislations but also because of also on humanitarian grounds and also the enormous economic impact of such accidents on the persons, organization and the country. It is our moral responsibility to prevent accidents so that at the end of the day, all of us reach our homes safely and take care of our beloved family members and smiles in their faces.

Road Rage - Control

For the last three months, I am commuting between office and residence on my vehicle. Before that I utilized department transport facility. Though the route is same, I am finding it difficult to control my anger at the way others on the road ride their vehicles. I may be getting every month Rs 4,000/- for coming on my own but I think this road rage of others is creating mental tension and is leading to health problems for me.

Most of the persons do not give directions, which way they will be turning. Some intelligent pillion riders keeping waving their hands in the air and we do not know whether to take it as a signal or he is talking. Other fellows, do not bother about the blinking indicators of their vehicles. They do not even bother to see that the indicator lamp is blinking. Then vehicle parking at the T joint roads. People park their vehicles right at the corners of T joints and those coming from side road to main road have to take a long turn with the possibility of collision with other vehicles plying on the main road.

Then, the cell world. With benk necks, keeping the mobile between the shoulder and the ear, it has become a fashion statement for the so called youth to start the vehicle after putting the mobile in above manner. It is unnerving to see such people on the road, particularly when they cross the road at 90 degrees from other roads. Then there are some people who slow down after joining the road from side roads and are undecided to go which way.

One day, when I was driving my bike, suddenly an elderly person (about 60 years, appears retired from service) started crossing the road, by waving the fingers in threatening manner. Not waiting for traffic to ease, he even wants to hold moving motorists responsible his safe road crossing.

Two days ago, I was going down the rail-over-bridge. I was driving the bike parallel to a bus, on its right side. I am not able to see what is on the other side of the bus. As I reached the end of the bridge and about to speed up the bike on the level road, suddenly a old man in his car appeared in front of me crossing the road at 90 degrees. I could not see the car as the bus on my left blocked my view on that side. Car driver could have seen the bus coming down the bridge. But he did not bother. My heart stopped a moment. But, as I observed, the old man was cool. I think he does not have any desire to live also, the way he appeared, the way he crossed the road though a bus was coming down at speed.

Then, there are other cool guys who drive their vehicle almost at the middle of the road at a slow speed. It is good that they are going at slow speed. But, by their action they are occupying the entire road. Common sense that we should drive at LEFT does not occur to them.

Then, the urgent masters. They seem to be in hurry always. Even when ambulances are coming behind with the siren, they do not want to give side. A life is at stake. But, if other motorists in their front are giving way for the ambulance behind to sped past, these hurry masters will use this and keep going forward.

Next come the cut masters. The road will be plain without obstructions or pits. Still, these fellows sometimes with more than one person in pillion, rush their vehicles with sharp cuts increasing B.P. of the other drivers on the road.

I find one of the solutions for these types of problems, is not to allow roads to intersect directly at 90 degrees. Side roads can join the road and then U turns should be provided 1/2 KM away from the point of joining of side road to main road, so that with some discipline, motorists can go along the road and take turn to the other road. This will avoid direct crossing of the road.

Similarly, there should not be any side roads at both ends of flyovers or road over bridges so that speeding vehicles do not hit those trying to cross to side roads at these places.

Then shops / business establishments / eateries at the corners of T joint should not be permitted if they do not have fenced parking place. If any vehicles is parked at the T joints where side roads join main roads, all these vehicles should be towed away and seized. Heavy penalties like Rs 5,000/- for first offence should be imposed so that they remember it for their life and may even spread the message among their friends and known persons. This will create awareness on road safety. It will start slowly, but I am sure, in a short time it will spread every where.

Similarly, penalties should be implemented strictly. Those who use mobiles on the roads, ride the vehicles without helmets / safety belts, go in wrong direction, go at excessive speed, do not stop at the signals, etc should be fined. The penalties should be excessive and targets should be given to the road traffic police. This will avoid corruption, else, with excessive penalties, violators will be willing to pay a fraction of the fine as bribe and escape. More people can be recruited in this regard and I am sure the penalties will be suffice to fund the salaries of these inspectors. If any body repeats his mistake, then, the vehicle / equipment (mobile) should be seized and should be sold by auction. This can be another income for the department.

Any body digging the road should be made to pay twice / thrice the cost of repairs to a road safety fund in addition to repairing the road immediately after his work is completed. This will avoid mindless digging of the roads for functions / cable laying one after another / etc.

If any person by his road movements causes injury / death, 10 - 50 % of his property value, with a minimum of Rs 5.0 lakhs should be collected from him towards the road safety fund. Apart from this, his licence should be cancelled forever, all vehicles under his possession should be seized and sold by auction. Such persons are not fit to drive the vehicles on the roads and it is better for them to use other transport methods.

Rules should be made such that, buyers of vehicles should watch road safety video and go through pamphlets and give under taking that they watched the road safety video and read the reading material and give under taking that they will not violate road safety rules (video and study material to be made specially for this purpose by transport department).

Though one may feel these types of penalties are stringent, reading the number of deaths every day because of road rage, I feel it is appropriate. Danda (stick) only will work in this world. Saama, Daana, Bhedha will not work.

I have some thing to say about road dividers also. With every relaying of the road, the height of the road divider comes down and after some time, the road divider is nothing but a small curb which is taken to their advantage by rule breakers by jumping over the roads on other side. The road divider should in fact be like a parapet wall of 1.5 m height so that road crossing becomes difficult illegally and then the high beam lights of opposite side coming vehicles will not cause momentary blindness to the drivers and thus will avoid accidents due to this cause.