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| Overloading goes on unabated, traffic police mute spectator | | Life at risk on Poonch-Rajouri road | | M S Nazki
POONCH, Apr 20: Taking advantage of severe shortage of staff in the Traffic Department, private buses continue to flout rules and regulations thus putting thousands of lives at risk in twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri.
Ironically, every year hundreds of passengers lose their precious lives due to accident caused by overloading in the private transport vehicles here in these frontier districts.
In fact, Poonch and Rajouri districts are known for deadly accidents. Hundreds of passengers were killed and thousands others wounded during the last few years.
Sources in the Traffic and Transport Departments said that inadequate number of commercial vehicles and shortage of traffic regulating staff allows private transporters to indulge in overloading.
"The state Traffic and Transport Department has failed miserably in taking effective steps to check overloading in the border districts. There is shortage of commercial passenger vehicles. And absence of new permits to private transporters leads to overloading," said Neeraj Sharma, a resident and businessman, who shuttles between Harni and this border township on daily basis in the overloaded Tata Sumo.
There is also shortage of traffic cops, which gives the private transporters free hand to overload.
A senior traffic police officer expressing helplessness to check overloading said "We do our bit to check it. But we too are facing shortage of manpower," he added.
The menace of overloading has put lives at risk with buses and Tata Sumo jam-packed with the passengers. The students moving to and from in the schools also prefer to board jam packed buses because they had to reach school in time.
Reports of overloading is mostly being received on Harni-Kalaban, Sagra-Mankote, Dharana- Dhargloon -Chatteral, BG Gali-JW Gali, Surankote-Mandi and Poonch -Rajouri routes. Sources said that traffic police has also failed to stop private transporters from overloading and there is alleged nexus between the transporters and traffic police in the area.
"There is hafta system just like we see in movies," sources said adding that Traffic Police in Mendhar -Poonch Rajouri received monthly hafta from the drivers and let them do what they want.
Although the government had issued instructions to Tehsildars and Naib Tehsildars to check overloading in their areas, however, nothing changed on ground in the area. |
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