Road Safety Week gets underway REBYNA RANA

GANGTOK, 27 Oct: Sikkim Traffic Police is organizing the 24th Safety Week 2013 on the theme ‘How to effectively manage traffic in Gangtok town, safety measurers while driving, and safe driving to save lives’ starting from today till 02 November here in the capital.
The state traffic police have been organizing similar programmes every year, but this is the first time that they are organizing it in a grand manner.
On the first day of the programme today, “Road Safety On-the-spot Painting and Quiz Competition” was held at the Deorali Senior Secondary Girls School, where a total of 240 students [22 schools] from in-and-around Gangtok participated.
Gangtok MLA, Dorjee Namgyal, who chaired the inaugural function as the chief guest, expressed gratitude towards the Traffic Police for conducting such an important programme. Creating awareness among students on road safety measures is a great step, he said and urged students to be cautious while walking on roads.
Adding further, the MLA said that it is not only students, but drivers as well as the public should take such programmes seriously. Appreciating the efforts of the state traffic police he stated that the state is doing very well in terms of awareness on road safety measures.
In the Painting competition, Suveksha Tamang [10th standard of PNG School], stood in the first position followed by Abhisekh Bhagat of Kendriya Vidhalaya [10th standard] in second position, and Deepanjali Pradhan of PNG School [12th standard] in third position.
Likewise, in the Quiz competition, Deepanjali Pradhan of PNG School [12th standard] stood in first position followed by Sonam T Lepcha of West Point School [12th standard] in second position, and Chogyal Tamang of Modern School [12th standard] in third position. All the winners, first runners up and second runners up received prizes along with certificates from the chief guest.
Consolation prizes were also distributed to the participants in both competitions.
The judges for the day were Under Secretary to CM, Yashoda Chhetri, Kabita Telang and Shyam Pradhan.
The function was also addressed by SP East, Manoj Tewari, accompanied by ASP, Traffic, Ongmu Bhutia, amongst others.