The South-West Traffic Guard, Bhawanipore Traffic Guard and Traffic Training School in collaboration with IMI-Kolkata Altruists organised a workshop for the auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers. The event saw a large number of attendees including the faculty – in charge of The Altruists Dr.Rituparna Basu together with the first year co-ordinators Harsh Kariwala and Shreyta Agarwal.
“Soft Skills and Motivation” talk show by Mr. Indra Jyoti Sengupta where he spoke about the recent accidents that had taken place on the roads of our “City of Joy” due to the nonchalance of taxi and auto drivers. Mr. Sengupta was wearing a black band on his arm as a symbol of grief. Thereafter Mr. Sengupta delivered a powerful speech aided with videos to finally drive home the fact that each life is precious and the drivers must treat their passengers like their own loved ones. Finally to end the session he called upon a driver from the crowd to open his black band and also asked the remaining drivers to promise him that they will drive more responsibly and safely from now on. His speech had liberal doses of motivation for the drivers where he spoke about how they played an important role in the economy facilitating movement, logistics and how they must feel proud of what they do apart from being a responsible driver. The importance of being a good human being was the highlight of the session.
IMI Kolkata Director, Dr.Banik also gave a warm speech welcoming everyone. He praised Traffic Police for their wonderful initiative and extended full support to them for such initiatives in future as it is only by such mutual support can we think of building an ecosystem for a better tomorrow.
A First Aid and Personal hygiene talk show by a retired nurse – Mrs.Geeta who has been awarded by Times of India for her outstanding social work marked the event. A session on “Traffic Rules” – an educational talk by a senior Traffic Police Officer was the final session .The officer spoke about the common reasons for accidents and how they can be avoided by a little care and alertness from the driver. CCTV footages of accidents on major roads and crossings were used to make the sessions explicable.
Light refreshments and snacks over doses of relevant information and guidelines for our transport providers/enablers yet again marked a well spent Sunday afternoon in this effort to make the roads a little safer.