Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Saturday courted controversy after he blamed motorcycles, cell phones and good-looking girlfriends for the high rate of road accidents in the state.
At a seminar on "Road Safety" at AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) in Raipur, Singh spoke about the increasing number of road accidents in Chhattisgarh. He also said that girls avoid helmets and instead use "laal-peela dupatta" to cover their faces.
"If you have a good motorcycle, good mobile and a beautiful girlfriend, than accidents are bound to happen," he said at the seminar.
He added that the youth population make up for more than half of road accident cases victims.
"Driving two wheelers in speed and talking is a common and if there is a tiff between them than he would apply brakes and hit against something. The youth then cares for nothing," he added.
"Earlier we felt that bad roads were the cause of accidents, so we constructed good roads but I was surprised to know that the number of accidents went up," the CM said.
Raman Singh has joined the list of other politicians known to have made controversial statements against women. In October, BSP MLA Rajpal Saini said that women should not be given mobile phones as they are a distraction.
"There is no need to give phones to women and children. It distracts them and is useless. Why do women need phones? My mother, wife and sister never had mobile phones. They survived without one," IBN quoted Saini as saying.
