HC notices on PIL claiming 41 daily road deaths in MP

Bhopal/Jabalpur: A division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, headed by Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf, issued notices to the central and state governments on a PIL seeking urgent measures to curb Madhya Pradesh's alarming road accident crisis. The petitioner, Ashish Shivhare, cited surface transport ministry data claiming 41 daily deaths in the state, often due to faulty road designs, potholes, encroachments, and untrained drivers receiving licences.Nine respondents, including the ministry of surface transport and highways, Insurance Regulatory Authority of India, state DGP, transport commissioner, PWD chief engineer, and Jabalpur traffic SP and municipal commissioner, face court scrutiny. Shivhare demanded joint police-urban administration responsibility, strict adherence to section 198 of the Motor Vehicles Act to fix engineer-contractor accountability for design flaws, mandatory digital retraining on traffic rules for licence holders, and a road safety app for reporting potholes, black spots, illegal parking, and stray cattle.Taking a serious view, the bench appointed advocate Arihant Tiwari as amicus curiae to assist.