Srinagar, 16-Sep: From last several decades, a series of road accidents claimed hundreds of innocent lives in Chenab valley and its adjoining areas.The Government and its agencies wake up to the situation only after some major accident has taken place. Otherwise, the Government agencies go into deep slumber after announcing half-hearted measures to check the number of accidents and promises to improve the road conditions as well as the commuter services.Everything is forgotten once the anger of the people goes off after a weeks or months. No Government in the past has bothered to improve the commuter services for the convenience of the people living in far flung areas when dependable and reliable transport operations totally are missing in the Chenab region.Few years ago, government had formed a committee of former legislators in the Chenab region who visited the region to investigate road accidents. After finding out the reasons, the government in its report had recommended that the roads in the region needs to be improved, all old vehicles be removed and SRTC buses be installed as soon as possible and roadside barriers should be installed to minimize damage in the event of an accident.In most of the cases, accidents have been attributed to over-loading and bad condition of road. In some cases, the buses and other vehicles that have fallen into Chenab River have not been traced and the passengers also remained untraced for months together. Some of the bodies were sadly recovered from Chenab River tens of kilometers downstream after many weeks. The spate of accidents in the recent past, were also caused by dilapidated road conditions and some of the roads are just not fit to ply vehicles. The inter-district roads of Kishtwar and Doda are the glaring example of worse condition of road.But so far the government has turned its back on all the recommendations made by the committee.While the roads connecting the upper villages of the Chenab region are in a dilapidated condition, the Jammu-Srinagar-Kishtwar-Batote road, is also in dilapidated condition. The highway has huge piles of sand and gravel along the roadside due to which it becomes very difficult to drive the vehicles.According to a report, there are more than 50% unlicensed drivers in the region but with the backing of the traffic police, they do not feel any fear of driving on these roads. Every day, precious human lives are lost and we wait for the fire by making routine statements of the government.It is necessary that the government, local representatives, traffic authorities, civil and police administration, society members, drivers and the people fulfill their responsibilities with honesty and dedication. Considering that concrete and effective measures should be taken to prevent road accidents so that incidents can be reduced in the future.(CNS)
