EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Feb 8: Alleging that some elements are deliberately trying to harm the interests of Jammu, MLA Jammu West, Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta has observed that this capital city had always been a hub of pilgrims but it was unfortunate that instead of developing it for providing facilities to these tourists, it is getting difficult for the smooth movement of even that of the local people because of congestion and traffic chaos. Hence, there is need to agitate all the problems to force the men in authority to act or quit. Interacting with the activists, Prof. Gupta said that known as city of temples, Jammu had been a big center of pilgrims to Mata Vaishno Devi, Shri Amarnath and various kinds of other tourist spots. This city survived and flourished even in those days when there were mischief from elements hostile to India and the cross border terror was on the peak. But it was strange that little was being done to mitigate the problems of the citizens as also those of the visitors arising out of the ever increasing traffic coupled with the heavy increase in the population. There is little effort even to control the traffic and construct Flyovers as also to widen the roads. But on the contrary in the name of installation of sewerage system, the roads, lanes and even the markets are being damaged but there are no repairs for months together.
The activists pointed out to the awful condition of sanitation, problem of parking, little efforts to regulate the traffic, even the traffic signals were not in working condition, Bus Stand areas presented an all round chaos, little steps being taken to provide facilities to visitors at Railway Station, the garbage and dirty water was finding its way into the river Tawi and even the Ranbir Canal is being converted into a dirty nullah.
Prof. Gupta said many of such problems would not have come up if there had been civic elections which are being evaded by the present government. |
