Diageo India and IRTE Partner To Extend Its Road To Safety Programme To Police Officials In Arunachal Pradesh

6 Jan 2020 | Press release

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Initiative will provide capacity training to over 80 Traffic Police and Transport Officials in the state

Itanagar, January 06, 2020: Diageo India together with the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) conducted the Road To Safety National Capacity Building Program for the Traffic Police officials of Arunachal Pradesh in Itanagar. DGP Arunachal, Shri. R.P. Upadhyaya, IPS; DIGP (HQ), Shri Madhur Verma, IPS and Shri MS Upadhye, IPS Retd, Advisor & Principal Faculty IRTE, Delhi were the chief guests and inaugurated the programme together with Dr Rohit Baluja, President, IRTE; and other senior officials. The two-day programme trained over 80 transport and traffic police officials in Arunachal Pradesh.

As per the World Health Organisation’s Global status report on road safety 2018, road accidents are a leading cause of deaths globally, claiming 1.35 million lives every year. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) reports that a total of 175 fatalities took place in Arunachal Pradesh alone due to road accidents in 2018. In the same year, the number of road accident in the state touched  277 with over 323 people being injured due to road accidents. In India, over 4,67,044 road accidents and over 1,51,417 fatalities have been reported during the year 2018.

The Capacity Building Training Programme is in line with the recently launched ‘’Hamara Arunachal Abhiyan’’, by the Arunachal Pradesh Government, which aims to involve all sections of the society in managing law and order in the state. Hamara Arunachal Abhiyan brings together the traffic police and the public for building a cohesive atmosphere and a better path to lead the state. One of the sub-campaigns of the Abhiyan includes traffic management which coincides with Diageo India and IRTE’s Capacity Building Training Programme.

With the objective to create awareness and impart training, the capacity building programme from 2 – 3 January 2020 provided the necessary skill sets to investigate, analyse road accidents and to take necessary steps to mitigate occurrence of these issues. The modules covered in the training programmes included Codes of Practice; Codes & Standards; Role of Police in Traffic Management; Legal Instruments dealing with Traffic and its Violation.

Speaking on the initiative, Abanti Sankaranarayanan, Chief Strategy and Corporate Affairs Officer, Diageo India, said “Diageo India’s ‘Road to Safety’ initiative aims to create the necessary impact to address the abysmal state of road safety in our country. By collaborating with the Arunachal Pradesh

Police officials together with IRTE and MORTH, we aim to take this programme to greater heights and create a national movement around road safety. We are thankful to DGP R.P. Upadhyaya, IPS and the Police Officials of Arunachal Pradesh for extending their support to the initiative.”

 Dr. Rohit Baluja, President, Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), said, “Road Safety is the core element and the backbone of an effective and safe traffic management system. We are committed to support the development of need-based training programs for the police officials across the country. I would like to compliment DGP. R.P. Upadhyaya as well as the Arunachal Pradesh Police for having supported this initiative. We are confident that with this training, the state will see further reduction in traffic fatalities on the road. The unflagging support of Diageo India towards this initiative needs to be complimented.”

The Diageo India ‘Road to Safety’ initiative together with IRTE is currently in its 5th Year and aims to provide capacity building training to transport and traffic police officials. Each programme is conducted by an expert panel of faculty from IRTE. The deliberations include integrating Motor Vehicles Driving Regulations, Motor Vehicles Act & Arunachal Pradesh Motor Vehicles Rules. The programme will also highlight Legal Instruments and Codes of Practice pertaining to Traffic Management & Road Safety.

Since 2014, the programme has trained over 5000 police officials and 7000 other participants which include Navy Officers, Engineers, Transport Officers and Commercial Vehicle Drivers. The training programmes have taken place in 22 states & Union Territories and 65 cities till date.