Sarita Jamwal
Udhampur, Sept 2 : Completely oblivious of the large number of road deaths registered in the state especially in the peripheral and interior roads, police have been allowing drivers of passenger vehicles to overload in exchange for a few copies of daily news papers which otherwise reach these areas later in the day. Interestingly, the drivers of passenger vehicles looking to make as much as they can during the peak morning hours tend to overload and manage to escape cheaply by offering a few copies of prominent daily newspapers at the nakkas on the way, which otherwise reach these areas late in the day. Ashok Kumar, a government employee who undertakes 37 kms journey from Udhampur to Ramnagar daily early in the morning narrates, "The drivers overload buses three times their capacity and since traffic police appears on roads late, the regular nakkas at places like Panchari , Majalata ,Latti and Basantgarh are happy to receive gift of few copies of daily newspaper and in exchange turn a blind eye to the dangerous overloading". A traffic officer when contacted in this regard reiterated that traffic cops are deployed on roads early in the morning and complaints of overloading was baseless. He however refused to comment on the hefty 'haftas' collected by them for overlooking gross traffic violations. |
