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| Closed Highway brings cheers for hoteliers, miseries for passengers | | Div Com asks hoteliers to reduce meal charges | | Munish Gupta
Jammu | Feb 6
Jammu-Srinagar National Highway connecting Kashmir Valley with rest of the country remained closed for the third consecutive day on Wednesday causing miseries to hundreds of stranded passengers.
The passengers - mostly Kashmiris - were huddled together trying to ward off the cold on the cemented floor of a bus stand in this winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, waiting anxiously for re-opening of the road.
They have no money to rent out a room in a hotel. The only shelter over their heads is the leaking roof of the bus stand, the starting point for their journey to the Valley.
And with the weather continuing to be inclement and the Highway closed due to heavy snowfall and landslides, there are no immediate hopes to bring them relief.
These Kashmiris had come down to Jammu for various reasons - to get their work done in the government offices, meet ministers and bureaucrats while others on business trips and some for interviews.
A large number of them had returned from Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkotta and other parts of India where they had gone to sell Kashmiri shawls and handicraft artefacts.
'Now I am stuck up here,' said Mohd Hussain, in his sixties, who had come here to meet one of his relations from his home district of Kulgam.
Hoteliers have raised the tariff by several times. A low class hotel, which would normally offer a room for Rs.300 or so, now asks for Rs.1, 000 plus. 'This is a ‘loot,' Rashid Ahmad, another stranded passenger to this correspondent. 'But there is no one to listen to us', he lamented.
None from the government has visited them. 'We are waiting for someone to come, but no one has visited us so far,' Ahmad said.
General Bus Stand, Jammu, from where more than 400 buses leave for various destinations within and outside the state has been converted into a big waiting hall, with stranded passengers spread all over.
The smoke of cigarettes fills the air, as they smoke heavily to kill the time.
Each waiting passenger has the same question for the other. 'Did you hear anything about opening of the road?'
Then a whole lot of curses start on the organizations managing the 294-km-long highway, the only operational road link the valley has with the rest of the country.
Heavy snowfall at Jawahar Tunnel, 190 km north of Jammu, and at Patnitop has made the road unworthy for traffic.
The snowfall has also spelt danger of avalanches, and officials have asked security, police and other government personnel posted near Jawahar Tunnel to take shelter within it to save themselves.
A police official said, 'No one is stranded on the highway.'
The passengers 'will be allowed (to travel) only after the road is cleared of the boulders and snow', the official said.
However official sources maintained that Minister of State for Health and Medical Education Peer Mohammad Hussain, accompanied by the Divisional Commissioner, SSP, Director Health Services and Additional Deputy Commissioner visited Bus-Stand here this evening to assess the situation arising out of closure of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
The sources said that the stranded passengers put-forth their difficulties to the minister and demanded immediate relief from the government. They complained that hoteliers were charging high rates for meals. They also demanded free Sulbh Toilet facility, free ration and accommodation at Jammu till National Highway re- opens.
Responding to the demands, the Minister asked the Divisional Commissioner to monitor the situation and ensure that the problems of the passengers are mitigated. He directed Deputy Director Health Service to keep doctors and medicines available to the passengers free of cost.
The Divisional Commissioner announced free Sulbh Toilets facilities for the stranded passengers. He asked Hotel Owners Association to reduce the meal charges for stranded passengers. He said that free Langar service is being started for stranded passengers in Bus Stand, and asked them to register their names with the Tehsildar, who has been asked to remain available there. The ADC was asked to keep stranded passengers informed about the status of the National Highway through Public Address System. |
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