‘Mann Ki Baat’: PM Narendra Modi hails Kargil soldiers, promises road safety Bill

“I salute the brave soldiers who thwarted the evil designs of the enemy without caring for their own lives. The Kargil war was not fought only on the border but every village, every city contributed to it,” Modi said.

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“This war was fought by those mothers and sisters whose sons and brothers were in the battlefield. It was fought by those girls who had just got married… those fathers who gave their sons and felt young themselves… and those sons who had not even learnt to walk properly, holding the finger of their father. It is because of their sacrifices that India can hold its head high in the world,” the PM said.

Steering clear of politics and choosing not to talk about the continuing logjam in the Parliament’s Monsoon Session, the PM also said that his government was planning to bring a road transport and safety Bill to tackle the high number of road accidents in the country. Cashless treatment would be provided to accident victims, he said.

“Whether it is education relating to road safety, road-engineering, enforcing the law, or providing emergency care to those injured in an accident, we are going to bring a road transport and safety Bill with all these points in mind,” he said, adding that the government would take steps to implement a national road safety policy and road safety action plan in the coming days.

Noting that an accident takes place every minute in the country and road accidents cause one death per four minutes, the PM said that one-third of the victims were in the age group of 15-25 years, and that one death shattered an entire family. He urged parents to educate their children to pay attention to road safety while driving.

Talking about a project to provide cashless treatment to accident victims, Modi said the victim would not have to worry for the first 50 hours as to who would pay the money. The project would be launched in Gurgaon, Jaipur and Vadodara, and then extended to Mumbai, Ranchi, Rungaon and Maundiya highways, he said.

Modi went on to talk about the MyGov website launched by his government on July 26 last year, saying it had been viewed by around two crore people and that around 5.5 lakh people had left comments. More than 50,000 people had given suggestions for the PMO app, he added. “They took out time, applied their minds and considered this task important,” he said.

Inviting suggestions for his August 15 Independence Day speech similarly, the PM said these could be posted on MyGov or sent in a letter to the All India Radio or the Prime Minister’s Office.