Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 9 : Despite recommendations of the house committee, the Bus and Mini-Bus (Matador) operators continue to overload their vehicles, which cause major accidents and take toll of human lives in Batote-Doda-Kishtwar belt.
All the Buses and Mini-Bus operators in the Batote-Kistwar belt continue to overload extensively. Passengers are even seen on the roof. The traffic authorities seem to be ignoring the recommendations of the house committee which was constituted to study and recommend measures to prevent continues accidents.
Abdul Majid, 28, a resident of Doda said, "The traffic cops do not check overloading, as they get their weekly share from the bus and Matador operators, but precious lives of the people are at risk." "The authorities have not learnt any lesson from many accidents, in which hundreds of people have lost their lives for the past one decade," he added.
As per the officials the average of the accidents have came down in this area for the past few months, but there is no control on the overloading of the vehicles.
Qayoom, a resident of Prem Nagar said, "People are forced to board on the overloaded bues, as there is an acute shortage of transport in this area, if the authorities want to control overloading in this area, they have to improve the transport system."
"House committee, in their report had blamed the bus operators and passengers for over loading, which causes accidents, but authorities should think about the reason of overloading, The eight member House committee, under the chairmanship of MLA, Yousaf Taragami, was constituted in March 2011 submitted its report in April 2002. House committee was constituted to study about these kinds of accidents and give recommendations to control it. In its report the committee has blamed the drivers of the vehicle for overloading and rash driving in the hilly area. But surprisingly even after more than a year, not even a single recommendation has been implemented in this area.
According to the locals, there are several passenger vehicles, which are more than 20 years old and still moving on the hilly route, which has became a major cause for accidents in this area. No speed measuring equipments are there on this route, not even the proper medical facilities are there to save the lives of the people who met with an accident.
Chairing a high level meeting of police and civil administration convened to review the status and progress made in respect of implementation of the recommendations of House Committee "constituted to look into the causes of frequent road accidents on Batote-Kishtwar road and suggest measures to prevent such accidents", Mubarak Gul, Speaker Jammu and Kashmir legislative Assembly asked the executing agencies to implement the recommendations of the Committee on ground.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Traffic National Highway, Ramban, Virender Sharma said, "We have controlled a lot on overloading, my team is very much vigilant on the overloading and some of the permits have also been cancelled, who were repeatedly found overloading." |
