It’s every citizen’s duty to be responsible, says Public Security Minister

Nov 01, 2016 News

…as Road Safety Month launched

One of the elements that must be addressed with regard to road safety is the abandonment

Drama group ‘The Reactors’ portraying an accident scene.

of individual irresponsibility.
This was the view of Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, as he delivered the feature address at the launch of Guyana National Road Safety Council (GNRSC)’s Road Safety Month 2016, under the theme: ‘Life does not have a reset button, drive carefully’. The venue was the Parliament Square on Avenue of the Republic, opposite Parliament Building.
Ramjattan emphasised that Government sees it as a citizen’s duty to be responsible, noting that having responsible citizenry is not something that is abstract or too philosophical to become reality.
“We have to be duly responsible; duly responsible to our kids at school, the way we drive our motor vehicles on the road, the way we walk on the road, the way we take care of our homes to avoid fires…the way we speak, so we are not abusive and inculcate anger in our young ones.
This responsibility, the Minister stressed, is across the board.
Ramjattan explained that statistics have shown that in a variety of situations Guyanese seem to lack care in how they conduct business. He said with all the information available, it is time to ask the question, “what should be done?”
The Minister said when dealing with this question, persons need to be honest with themselves, so that answers can be found to solve the situation.
Statistics received by the minister has shown that last week 338 persons were charged for speeding, 51 for overloaded minibuses, 77 persons for failure to wear a seatbelt, 71 for driving under the influence of alcohol, 36 for careless driving and another 36 for the breach of conduction of road service licence.
The Minister said last year 47,000 charges were brought before the court, compared to this year where 60,000 charges have been brought before the court “and the year isn’t done yet.”
Also addressing the gathering were GNRSC Chairman Dennis Pompey, who signalled the entity’s intention to lobby for the authorities to suspend the licences of persons found to be driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and Denise Dias of Alicea Foundation, also known as ‘Mothers In Black’.