Issue 50 Vol III, October 31, 2007

C O M M E N T

Punjab’s Killer Highways
L.K. Verma

LIFE is turning to be a game of chance. The killer roads are snuffing it in dozens each month in the north west of India. Our poor quality roads are insufficient to carry the heavy traffic, our ill trained often drunk or drugged moody drivers are only adding to the woes. Road rage, too common demonstrates our criminal culture and snuffs out precious lives for no reason.

In the last few decades there has been an immense rise in the vehicular traffic on the roads so the chances of getting accidents have also increased. The number of people killed in such road accidents is increasing day by day. Punjab is not far behind this, there are 8 to 10 peoples killed daily in road accidents in the state and the toll is still rising. No western country would tolerate this rate, but our policy makers, rulers and the officials care too hoots for such deaths. How many families get destroyed in the process is no one’s concern.

There have been major developments in Punjab in the recent years. The number of kilometers of roads added in the last 40 years has also grown in the state. According to the data available from various government departments and the police there are 12 national highways measuring approximately 1,685 kms along with 19 state highways measuring 1,485 kms.

More than two lakh vehicles are added on the roads of Punjab every year. The number of such vehicles has reached up to 40 lakh in 2006 as compared to 5500 vehicles in the late sixties. The road network has also grown from 8,966 kms in 1964-65 to 52,281 kms in 2004-05. With this rise in the traffic, the number of people killed in the road accidents has also increased. There were 2,354 people killed in road accidents in Punjab in the year 2000 and the figure rose to 2,966 in 2006.

A study conducted by the Punjab Roads and Bridges Development Board on the state highways  identified  the accident black spots by analyzing the past police records on state and main district highways. Appropriate measures were recommended for making roads in the Punjab safer. This study also revealed that the present road accident death rate per 10,000 vehicles in India is 25 compared to 1 in Japan and 2 to 4 in many of the advanced countries.

Awareness about road safety has not grown the same way. A study by the Punjab police found that the majority of accidents take place due to the fault of the drivers. This fault usually resulted from fatigue, stress, non-observance of driving rules and lack of warning signs on the roads. This study too found that high speeds total disregard for traffic rules, congested urban areas, drunken and negligent driving, sleep, and lack of road safety education are the common cause of accidents.

The lack of concern for traffic management has been seen among vehicle owners, drivers, and pedestrians who make use of the roads. Major factors contributing to road accidents involves 83.5% drivers fault, 4.7% pedestrian/passengers fault, 7.9% bad roads/faulty road engineering, 3% mechanical defect in vehicle, 0.9% bad weather. Most of these road accidents can be avoided through proper traffic management and education.

The accident data collected from 2001 to 2005 revealed that fatal accidents increased at a rate of 2.6%, 0.7% and 1.12% respectively between 2001 and 2004. Patiala district recorded highest (13.5%) accidents followed by Ludhiana (10.1%). Rural areas account for about 67% of fatal accidents and 62% of total accidents.

Head on collision is the highest (27.3%) form of accident on highways. Overturning happens mainly due to overloading of vehicles, sudden potholes and the vehicles suddenly going out of control due to sleep or even over speeding in a curve. Rear-end collision was found to occur mainly due to maintaining insufficient stopping distance, vehicles being parked on the road without parking lights, drunken and negligent driving. The lack of awareness of road safety and adequate pedestrian facilities led to the pedestrian accidents.

Awareness for traffic rules and educating people about road safety is needed. The police in this case feel that there is a need for concentrated effort in traffic management. An important pending proposal pertains to fixing the speed limit to control over speeding as each district is following different speed limits. Traffic related education to be given in schools to all potential drivers. There is a proposal to use 50% percent of funds from challans for the purpose of traffic education and improving it.

The highways can be made safe ways for everyone if we have awareness about traffic rules and follow them in an effective manner. There is also needed a sort of calmness while driving on the highways. There should be less congestion on the roads and the police instead of making quick buck should concentrate on traffic in an effective manner. This will make everyone’s journey as happy and safe journey.

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China: Increasing Disparities Expose Socialist Claims

Disparities are increasing every passing day thanks to the market socialism that the Communist Party of China has embarked upon. Poverty is growing and the gap between the rich and the poor widening as China registers better and better growth rate.

A 26-year-old woman worth $16.2 billion is the Chinese mainland's richest person, topping a list of tycoons whose wealth has soared amid a boom in stock and property prices, the business magazine Forbes revealed on October 9, 2007.

The fortune of Yang Huiyan - also Asia's richest woman - is based on shares in Country Garden Holdings Ltd, a real estate developer founded by her father, Forbes said. It said the company's Hong Kong stock market debut this year made billionaires of Yang and four other people.

In second place was another developer, Hui Wing Mau, with a net worth of $7.3 billion. No 3 was Guo Guangchang, chairman of a manufacturing, retailing and real estate conglomerate, Fosun Group, with a fortune of $4.85 billion.Their rise reflects a sharp rise in Chinese real estate prices over the past year.

Yang also represents an unusual case of second-generation wealth in China, most of whose richest people are self-made entrepreneurs still in their 30s and 40s. Her net worth was more than seven times that of last year's richest mainland person, appliance retailer Gome's Huang Guangyu, who was worth $2.3 billion. Huang, also known as Wong Kwong-yu, dropped to No 10 on this year's list, even though his net worth rose by more than 50 percent to $3.6 billion.

Forbes said it compiled its list by looking at shareholdings in public companies and estimating what holdings in private entities would be worth if public. The list excludes Hong Kong, home to some the region's richest business people, such as tycoon Li Ka-shing.

The China list's rankings change sharply from year to year, reflecting the rapid evolution of the booming economy, which expanded by 11.9 percent in the third quarter. This year, there were 20 new names among the list's top 40 richest people, Forbes said.

Yang, who graduated from Ohio State University, was one of 12 real estate developers among the top 40. All 40 were billionaires, up from only 15 last year, the magazine said. The combined net worth of the top 40 also rose sharply, from $38 billion in 2006 to $120 billion this year.

Last year's richest woman, Zhang Yin, founder of Nine Dragons Paper Co, fell from No 5 to No 11 on this year's list, though her net worth grew by 125 percent to $3.4 billion.

As China's reform and opening up deepens and the socialist market economy develops, a profound change is bound to take place in the country's economic structure there is the emergence of new social class. The new social strata comprise technologists in private technology firms, managers in foreign-funded companies, the self-employed, entrepreneurs, employees in brokerage firms and freelance professionals. Under the guidance of the Party and the government, they have made important contributions to the country's social economic development through their honest labor and work and lawful business operations.

It is estimated that more than 150 million people are part of this strata, and control or manage a cumulative capital of $1.3 trillion contributing directly or indirectly about one-third of the country's tax revenue. The private sector, which accounted for less than 0.1 percent of the GDP (gross domestic product) in 1979, now has a proportion of one-third of the GDP, or even more in some regions.

Since the country adopted the reform and opening up policies, about 70 percent of the technological innovations, 65 percent of domestic invention patents and 80 percent of new products are from small and medium-sized enterprises, in which over 95 percent are non-public enterprises.

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