Stalin launches ‘Kutty Cop’ project, 4.5 lakh students take road safety pledge

An NGO seeks to educate school children on road safety through a specially designed curriculum; workbooks will be given to students of Classes III-VIII of all schools in Coimbatore district 

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Wednesday virtually launched ‘Kutty Cop’, a road safety awareness education project of the Coimbatore-based NGO ‘Uyir’. He also administered a road safety pledge to 4.5 lakh students in the district.

Nearly 5,000 students took the pledge in the CODISSIA Trade Fair Complex, while the rest of the 4.5 lakh students took it at their schools. The students vowed to function as ‘policemen at home’ to enforce road safety measures for their parents and elders. They will ensure that their family members wear helmets while riding two-wheelers, fasten seat-belts while travelling in four-wheelers and avoid rash driving, over-speeding, traffic signal violations and speaking on mobile phones while driving.

Officials of the World Records Union adjudicated the event as a world record attempt for the highest number of students taking a road safety awareness pledge. Under the project, ‘Uyir’ aims to educate school children on road safety through a specially designed curriculum and make them messengers of road safety. Workbooks will be given to students of Classes III-VIII of all schools in the district and faculty manuals will be given to teachers.

According to the organisers, all block resource teacher educators (BRTEs) have been trained by officials of the Coimbatore City Traffic Police and the Regional Transport Offices and resource persons from ‘Uyir’. The BRTEs will train all the government school teachers, who, in turn, will take lessons for students. The classes will commence within this academic year.

Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise V. Senthilbalaji; Chief Secretary V. Irai Anbu; Additional Chief Secretary (Home, Prohibition and Excise Department) K. Phanindra Reddy; Director-General of Police C. Sylendra Babu; ‘Uyir’ chairman Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu; managing trustee S. Rajasekaran; trustee G. Soundararajan; patron S.V. Balasubramaniam; and member S. Natarajan were with Mr. Stalin when he launched the programme from Chennai.

Coimbatore Collector G.S. Sameeran; City Police Commissioner V. Balakrishnan; Coimbatore Municipal Corporation Commissioner M. Prathap; District Superintendent of Police V. Badrinarayanan; Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) N. Mathivanan; ‘Uyir’ trustees K. Ramasamy, M. Krishnan and D. Balasundaram; and School Education Department officials took part in the event in the CODISSIA Trade Fair Complex.