PUNE, November 21: An application will be moved before the Charity Commissioner on Monday to register the Jeevan Raksha Pratishthan - a trust to be formed by the traffic police - a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and individuals in Pune to promote attitudinal changes among the people and law-enforcing agencies towards the growing traffic problems and appreciation of road accidents.

This was announced by Police Commissioner K K Kashyap at a function held here yesterday evening. A wall poster aimed at encouraging the people to help accident victims, published by the Kumari Rajashri Parmar Memorial Foundation, was presented to the Police Commissioner.

While Chandmal Parmar of the foundation will be the founder-chairman of the trust, the other seven trustees will include a police officer and representatives of various organisations, said Kashyap.

Besides appreciating the need for immediate help to accident victims, the trust would also organise exhibitions, seminars, workshops and training courses for different groups of society to educate them about this, he added.

The basic objective of the trust will be to sensitise all people concerned towards the need for better traffic management and almost pollution free and peaceful atmosphere, Kashyap stated. The trust will also reimburse the expenses incurred on providing immediate help to the accident victims, he elaborated.

While mentioning that Harish Belani, the resident who came up with the idea of forming the trust, has committed to donate Rs 50,000 to encourage the people having a positive attitude towards accident victims, Kashyap added that the money will go towards the formation of fund for the trust.

While elaborating on the city's traffic related problems, Kashyap said the number of two-wheeler vehicles in the city, which was 1,350 in 1960, had reached to 6,00,730 in July this year. The number of autorickshaws which was 207 in 1960 had reached to 46,188 in July this year while the four-wheelers which were 2,658 in 1960 crossed the 88,535 mark in July 1997. Despite this, the police had succeeded in restricting the number of fatal road accidents, he stated.

The 237 road crossings and other important points in the city needed at least one traffic man to control the traffic.

However, a man power of only 457 constables was sanctioned to the traffic branch as of 1990, he complained.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.