Scheduled to begin at 11.30 am, programme kicks off after 2 pm, testing guests’ patience
Actor Jackie Shroff reached the venue at 10.30 am but left after a few hours; (right) The state government’s 34th Road Safety Drive was launched at NCPA on Wednesday
Maharashtra is one the states that see the highest number of road mishaps and related deaths, but the launch event for the 34th Road Safety Drive, which was to be kicked off by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde—who also holds the transport portfolio—on Wednesday, was nothing short of a joke.
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Scores of guests and students were kept waiting and hungry for hours due to delays. The Maharashtra government is celebrating Road Safety Week from January 11 to 17 this year. The chief minister and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who were to inaugurate the function at NCPA in south Mumbai, ended up giving it a miss.
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Officials said Shinde and Fadnavis opted to skip the function, which was originally scheduled to begin at 11.30 am, after initially rescheduling to 1 pm due to some prolonged meetings. However, as there was no sign of the event beginning, many guests, including bus and truck operators, left the venue.
Veteran actor Jackie Shroff had reached the venue at 10.30 am, but he left after a few hours as did many other guests. Marathi actor Siddharth Jadhav, another guest, did not turn up for the function. Eventually, after 2 pm, Maharashtra Excise Minister Shambhuraj Desai inaugurated the function.
Addressing the attendees, Desai said that the transport and police department should take innovative and practical steps instead of celebrating Road Safety Week conventionally. "This time something new, different, innovative and practical should be shown to the people and they should learn lessons from this," Desai said.
As per official data, Maharashtra reported 35,717 road accidents in 2018, followed by 32,925 the following year, 24,971 in 2020 and 29,477 in 2021. At least 13,261 people lost their lives in vehicle crashes in 2018 while the figure stood at 12,788, 11,569 and 13,528 in 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively.
13,261
No of vehicle crashes in 2018
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