GENERAL INSURANCE COUNCIL WORKSHOP ON ROAD SAFETY

Road accidents cause loss of 1.5 Lacs of lives and 3% GDP every year- Mr. Nitin Gadkari Union Minister

General Insurance Council conducted a Workshop on the subject of motor vehicle insurance and road safety on 28.1.2020 at Hotel Le Meridien New Delhi to address issues related to Road Accidents as a follow up on the 31st National Road safety week.

The workshop was inaugurated by Mr Nitin Gadkari Hon’ble Union Minister who was the chief guest, and was attended by  CEO's of Insurance industry, senior officials of IRDAI and Ministry of Road transport , Department of Financial Services , Delhi  Police and Transport department, NGOs, Motor Surveyors and other stakeholders.

Mr.MN Sarma Secretary General GI Council conducted the proceedings and Mr. AV Girija Kumar, Chairman GI Council welcomed the minister and all participants expressing hope that this workshop will go a long way in educating the stakeholders for safer roads.

Mrs. TL Alamelu member nonlife spoke on the subject in detail citing the  statistics on road accidents which were alarming. She also spoke on the steps being taken by IRDAI to educate people and get more and more uninsured vehicles into insurance net.

 Mr. Sanjiv Ranjan secretary MoRTH, delivered the keynote address and gave details of Ministry’s initiatives to bring legislative as well as administrative changes to control road accidents.

Chief guest Mr. Nitin Gadkari spoke at length on the subject and stated that the road accident statistics of India make him hang his head in shame before the world community

Citing a personal accident and the trauma caused to his family sometime back he appealed to all to show more sensitivity in handling road accident victims and create an environment where such loss of life and property is minimized. Emphasising 4Es viz Education, Enforcement, Emergency response and Engineering for prevention of deaths on the road he highlighted his ministry’s campaign to identify accident spots. According to him faulty road engineering was responsible for many accidents.

He said  I like people who take the decisions and decision making is required from every stakeholder and when everyone cooperates with sensitivity it will be really possible to bring down road accidents and save lives

 The minster also released  road safety booklets for school children and awarded prizes to the winners of law university competition on best road safety presentations.

 Mr MN Sarma, Secretary General who conducted the proceedings proposed vote of thanks to guests.

 Earlier a panel discussion on motor vehicle insurance and road safety consisting of Mr Bhargava Dasgupta CEO of ICICI Lombard , Mr Tapan Singhel CEO of Bajaj Allianz Mrs Yegnapriya Bharat CGM IRDAI and Mr Taj Hasan Special Commissioner Delhi Police and moderated by Mr G Srinivasan Director NIA took place in which issues of traffic violation and fines were discussed in detail amongst other issues.

Another panel discussion took place  on golden hour and new amended Motor vehicle Act . Panel discussion was moderated by Mr SS Gopalarathanam CEO of Cholamandalam MS. Eminent panelist like  Mr Piyush Jain of MoRTH,Mrs Tajinder Mukherjee CMD of National Insurance Company, Dr Piyush Tewari of Savelife foundation and Dr Harshit Agarwal from AIIMS spoke on importance of golden hour which is now incorporated in the new Act. Importance of speedy assistance to reduce  fatality and stabilising the injured person was emphasised  and serious efforts needed to be made to have the necessary mechanism in place.