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| Enforce discipline to check deaths in road accidents | | |
Though in India as many as over
three to four lakh people die in road
accidents per year,the rate of casualties in road accidents in Jammu and Kashmir is quite high when compared to the area and population of the state.Rough estimates indicate that not less than 100 to 200 road accidents take place in Jammu and Kashmir per year and most of these accidents occur on mountain roads,including the Srinagar-Jammu highway and the road arteries on the highway linking remote villages.And if more than 24 passengers were killed and 50 injured, when a bus they were travelling in plunged into a 200-feet deep gorge, in Udhampur district on Monday morning it was one among many such accidents in the state.Rough estimates reveal that on an average 1,000 to 5,000 people get killed in road accidents in Jammu and Kashmir a year.It is not a small figure.Police authorities are right when they say that more people have been killed in road accidents than in the militancy related incidents of violence.As far as Monday's road accident is concerned it occurred around 10 am when the overloaded bus, on its way from Latti to Udhampur, plunged into the gorge near Bandrasa Morh.One can imagine the impact of the fall of the bus into the gorge when the it took several hours for the officials and labourers to retrieve all the bodies and shift the injured to the hospital.Some of the bodies had got buried under the ill fated bus. If more than 24 precious lives were in the road accident it is not for the first time that the mishap took place.And it would be bad for people to blame the newly installed PDP-BJP coalition Government.These road accidents have been taking place whether the state was under one party rule or under coalition Government.These road accidents take place during all seasons of the year. Hence one cannot hold snow and rain responsible for the road accidents.There are several factors responsible for such road mishaps.One is the condition of the buses.Most of the buses plying on rural roads are not road worthy.Most of the buses have outlived their utility and the traffic police and other Government agencies act as passive spectators whenever and wherever they notice rickety buses plying on rough roads.Secondly,most of the roads in hilly areas and that too in remote rural areas have not been upgraded with the result the surf ace of these roads is not fit for smooth driving.In fact no Government agency has taken the trouble of carrying out a review of the condition of roads in the state,especially in the hilly areas.The result is that there are scores of roads,connecting remote villages with the district or tehsil headquarters,that have blind curves which drivers of less experience fail to negotiate.
The most important factor responsible for repeated road accidents is the menace of overloading.Imagine buses having a seating capacity for 32 to 40 people carrying more than 60 people,some of the passengers sitting on the roof tops of the buses.If a survey is carried out one will that in more than 80 per cent cases the buses or the mini buses that fall into the ravines or gorges are overloaded.Soon after each road accident police,traffic and other agencies are seen on the roads,highways and other road arteries for enforcing discipline.But these exercises are carried out for a week or so and then every agency forgets about the mishap.Have the drivers and conductors been asked to go in for frequent tests for updating their driving licence.If one may not be held responsible for exaggeration one is forced to believe that police,traffic and transport agencies conspire to kill people.It is the duty of these agencies to check road worthiness of the buses,check driving capacity of the drivers and carry out a major review of the condition of roads.Once the Government agencies carry out a fresh survey and improve road surfaces by removing blind corners and curves things could improve.If the Mufti led Government iks keen to promote economic health of the state it is also the duty of the Government to initiate measures which could prevent people from meeting unnatural death. |
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