Harman Sidhu behind the liquor ban on Highway

Liquor ban on Highway’s , this decision by Supreme Court, which is the highest court of the country, is being discussed everywhere. The Non government Organisation, “Arrive Safe”, headed by Harman Sidhu, was fighting for the ban for a long time.

Supreme court has clearly ordered that there will no liquor vends on National Highways and liquor will not be served in any restaurants or bars on national highway within 500 meters of the road.

Harman Sidhu, when asked why he filed PIL on this issue, Harman told that he met with road accident in the year 1996, in which his spinal cord was badly injured.

He was bed ridden for some time but spinal injury lead to permanent disabling of his lower body part, and he was forced to sit in wheel chair for rest of is life. That accident changed his life and he started thinking about avoiding road accidents.

Revealing the stats about the accidents in India, Harman told that there are around 5,00,000 accidents reported every year in our country, and around 1.5 lacs lives are lost every year in such accident. As per world stats around 10 percent of accident around the world, occurred in India.

Harman said he started his mission by creating website for Chandigarh Traffic Police, www.chandigarhtrafficpolice.org was the website, which was created to inform people about traffic rules and safety.

He started later on he and his NGO Arrive Safe started awareness camps at various place to educate people. While communicating with the people about the issue, he came to know that liquor vends on national Highway are tempting for those who drink and drive.

He said their NGO protested over the issue but no one bothered they filed PIL on it in high court in December 2012.

Sidhu also told that when Punjab and Haryana High court gave decision to close all vends on highways, both states reached Supreme court to get some relief which took this struggle to Supreme court.

About general public which use to enjoy in pubs , he said he is not against liquor or is not fighting for liquor ban, he just want to avoid accidents. He said even he takes liquor, he is also forced to obey the court orders and will fetch some for himself from far places now.

About the future actions, he said he in no way wants to take each and every issue to supreme court, but his fight for saving human lives from accident will go on. He said their organisation has already filed another PIL in Supreme Court, to bring authorities responsible for unsafe roads and bridges.

He said there are many accident taking place on bridges without proper safety railings and last year school bus fell from the bridge, leading to loss of small kids life.