The Howrah Zilla Traffic Awareness Society filed a public interest litigation (PIL) on Thursday, seeking a court order asking both the Central and state governments to include a course on traffic rules in school syllabi.

The petitioner organisation also sought a directive from the court asking the state authorities to implement the Central notification issued on June 10, 1998, directing it to strengthen the traffic system in Calcutta and Howrah for the sake of ordinary people, especially school-going children.

Smarajit Roy Chowdhury, counsel appearing for the petitioner organisation, said the PIL will come up for hearing on Friday before the division bench of Chief Justice V.S. Sirpurkar and Justice Ashok Kumar Ganguly.

Roy Chowdhury stressed that inclusion of traffic rules in school syllabi was more important than introduction of sex education. ?In 2003, 435 people were killed in road accidents in Calcutta and Howrah. In 2004, roads accidents in these two cities claimed 410 lives,? he said.

The lawyer cited a recent study by the Union surface transport ministry, according to which, every two minutes one person was dying in road accidents across the country. ?The toll in Calcutta and Howrah is much higher than in any other metro,? he said.

In its petition, the Society said it had participated in a Road Safety Week from January 3, organised by the state transport department. ?We feel that the there should be continuous road awareness programmes to educate the children about road safety. This is only possible if it is introduced in the school syllabi,? it claimed.

The petition said in 1998, the Centre had issued a notification asking all states to revamp traffic systems, especially in the metros, to avoid road mishaps.

?The notification was issued following alarming reports of accident deaths from different metros. But the West Bengal government failed to take any step to develop the traffic system,? the petition alleged.

The petition is significant as the same division bench, on another PIL, had set up a five-member committee to monitor traffic lights.