The Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety has asked the Andhra Pradesh government to remove liquor shops that dot its national and state highways by the end of December.

In a letter to AP chief secretary IYR Krishna Rao on Tuesday , the committee also asked the government to prepare a hoarding policy to remove all hoardings from national and state highways that distract drivers. The letter sought an urgent action against road safety violations as more than 8,000 people had died in road accidents in 2014 in AP alone, a Times of India report states.

The committee also told the state to appoint an agency with senior officers to implement these suggested measures.

The TOI report also adds:

AP has achieved the dubious distinction of registering more than 25 per cent of fatal accidents involving passengers of autorickshaws in the country . As many as 1,734 persons died in road accidents involving autorickshaws and the state has the highest number of such deaths in India. About 8.9% of all accidents in the country occur in the state. The death percentage is 10.8 per cent.

This is however not the first letter by the committee which had already submitted the proposal to ban liquor outlets on highways but could not enforce it by June 30, resulting in the December 31 deadline.