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| From Azad’s ‘minimising’ measures, to Omar’s ‘zero level’ accidents, Chenab Valley roads continue devouring humans | | CM fixes two weeks time for transport management policy! | | Early Times Report
Jammu, June 26: Another accident and another soul searching panel –this is a freewheeling story for the hilly roads of Chenab Valley and other districts, particularly in Jammu region, where government initiative could not go beyond lip service and panel formations.
Little over a year after his predecessor Ghulam Nabi Azad constituted a very ‘high level’ committee to recommend measures for minimizing accidents in the hilly areas, particularly Doda and Kishtwar regions, the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today set a time frame of two weeks for the administration to come with a strategy for bringing down accidents to zero level.
Azad had constituted a committee earlier last year after ghastly bus accident near Chhatroo in which more than 50 passengers were killed. Bodies of over 30 are yet to be traced. The committee, he set up, moved swiftly with its recommendations to the government. A slide show was also presented before the Chief Minister at another high level meeting, attended among others by the Chief Secretary, but those recommendations were never taken into practice and accidents never stopped.
One of the recommendations including taking all buses with long body length off the Doda, Kishtwar roads and replacing them with mini buses. The state government has also offered to put 20 SRTC buses of smaller length on these roads. Another recommendation included widening of sharp curves. A recent visit of this reporter to the region revealed that no part of any recommendation was put in place.
The new Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was perhaps not briefed by officers about the recommendations of ‘high level committee’ his predecessor has obtained. The Chief Minister has now set a new deadline for brining accidents down to zero level.
At another high level meeting attended by almost all those officers who were part of Azad’s such meeting last year, the Chief Minister today said overloading menace can be eradicated by enhancing availability of public transport on the routes where there is higher demand for the same. “It will be unacceptable that a public bus operator, without having hill license, plays with the lives of people by plying on difficult routes in hilly areas, that too with overload,”, he said and added that not only enforcement of strict regulations was a must to stop this, but it also requires public awareness.
The Chief Minister asked the Traffic Department to place reflectors in highly accident-prone stretches so that drivers, at least get reference of road, especially during dark hours. “This could be short-term temporary measure till vulnerable road stretches are upgraded and improved,” he added.
Referring to traffic management in the twin cities of Srinagar and Jammu, the Chief Minister said that some incentives for best traffic managers in traffic police should be introduced to encourage them for rendering extraordinary service in this regard. “We should also think of some Urban Transport Authority or Corporation to manage traffic in the cities”, he added.
Abdullah gave directions for enforcing rules pertaining to the use of helmets and registration number-plates on the vehicles and said that this should begin from the government departments. He said traffic police should launch a drive to make people aware about the size and type of registration number-plates they require to use on their vehicles. He also directed for placing motorcycle traffic police squad on duty in the cities to enforce traffic regulations and manage the flow of traffic. |
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