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| Tragic road accidents in chenab valley | | Worse road and negligence of administration became headache for passengers | | Raja Shafqat Sheikh
From last several decades series of traffic road accidents claimed hundreds of innocent lives on the roads in Chenab Valley and its adjoining areas during the past several decades is not only unfortunate but tragic also.
Yesterday's Truck accident over Dunadi Bunjwah road in which driver Mohd Ashraf was killed is one in series of the accidents that takes place in Bunjwah area of Kishtwar district in Chenab valley. The reasons are not far to seek because due to wosre condition of "Dunadi Bunjwah road " and negligence of district administration and concerned agencies for their failure in maintaining chenab valley roads and particularly Dunadi Bunjwah road that is still not completed / black topped from last decades.
Not only worse roads, deficient services has been leading to over-loading and rash driving resulting in accidents every now and then in chenab valley .
The passengers travelling in buses and other commuter services have lost their lives for no fault of theirs as they were just commuting on the roads as per their daily requirements. In most of the cases, accidents have been attributed to over-loading and worse condition of roads as a result of which the vehicles have been going out of control of the drivers and falling into deep gorges resulting the death of many precious lives .
Witnessing some cases , the buses and other vehicles that have falles into Chenab river have not been traced and the passengers also remained untraced for days to days and months together.
In some cases , the bodies were sadly recovered from Chenab river tens of kilometers downstream after many weeks. The spate of accidents in the recent past was also caused by dilapidated road conditions and some of the roads are not traffic worthy that is Dunadi Bunjwah road. In some cases, the traffic police authorities resorted to suspension of its officials for their alleged failure to check over-loading in passenger vehicles after the accidents have taken place. But such knee jerk reactions from the police and traffic authorities do not solve the purpose and not the solution to accidents in this region as also other hilly regions of state and particularly chenab valley roads. The government and its agencies also 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 few weeks or months. None in the successive governments in the past have bothered to improve the commuter services for the convenience of the people living in far flung areas when dependable and reliable transport operations totally missing in chenab region.
In yesterday's truck accident over bunjwah road near KunaMorh shows completely failure of JKPCC and PMGSY in maintaining and restoration of road . Bunjwah having status of Tehsil headquarter and falling in Inderwal assembly segment , from where 18 years G M Saroori present MLA and Cabinet Minister in NC_Congress rules but failed in repairing of road.
In previous decades, transport operation was considered by the government a social sector for providing commuting facilities when connectivity was a problem for the people living in remote areas. Unfortunately, the transport operations in far flung and remote areas besides the urban centres have become captive to the mafia controlled by some transporters charging double and triple fare from poor passengers. They have been operating worn out passenger vehicles in the hilly areas in connivance with the traffic police, who are irresponsible due to acute corruption and collecting newspapers from drivers.
The over-loading , operation of condemned vehicles and detorating condition of road goes on unchecked by these transport operators' mafia. It is also a sad state of affairs that some of the roads which cannot carry the load of the heavy vehicles and bigger passenger buses are also used without caring for the safety of the commuters. It was after much hue and cry from the legislators from this belt that a committee was constituted to find out the cause of huge number of accidents. The findings of the committee were neither made public nor implemented. The committee found out that bad roads were mainly responsible for the accidents besides scant services. The commuters do not have any option than to travel in over-loaded buses because the next service may not be there for hours to come or till the next day. Majority of the buses operated by the state owned corporation were withdrawn by the government under pressure from the transport mafia which shared some booty with the government officials responsible for monitoring the transport operations.
Not enough to say that crores of rupees are withdrawn from concerned department on name of restoration, removing slides and maintaining drainage system , unfortunately the amount goes in pockets of contractors without doing some work . Before a month ago RTI reveals that an amount of 18437531 rupees are spent on Dunadi Bunjwah road from Noor to Binoon naming KewaPul to Kither road measuring 6.775km in length . It is not satisfactory response as more than 10 crores are withdrawn that was not mentioned by PMGSY in replying RTI that was Filed by Social activists of bunjwah .
It is pertinent to mention here that throughout chenab valley , roads connecting the farflung and hilly areas are not properly maintained by JKPCC, PMGSY and R&B department , that results the precious loss of lives in accident for which concerned departments and district administration are responsible for the same . |
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