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| VIPs’ security not at the cost of common man | | | Early Times Special Correspondent
Jammu | Feb 8
News Analysis
Happily, the stand off between the Residency Road Traders and the authorities was resolved within a short time, with the Divisional Commissioner Jammu Sudhanshu Pandey adopting a reasonable attitude towards the agitated Residency Road Traders and conceding their demand to allow the vehicles of the customers coming to the market for shopping to be parked on one side of the Residency Road, while the shopkeepers will park their own vehicles in the parking slot being set up at Eid Gah ground in a by lane of the Residency Road.
On Wednesday, the authorities abruptly removed the paid parking lot duly set up by the Jammu Municipal Corporation for parking of the vehicles and the traffic police making a bid to lift the vehicles parked there, for which the Shopkeepers and others who regularly park their vehicles make monthly payment to the Municipal Corporation for the purpose. The traders in the area reacted by giving call for strike for the next day and holding demonstration as well as blocking the road by staging sit in protest and shouting slogans against the authorities.
The authorities' action was prompted by the concern of security of the Chief Minister, who is reported to be under high level threat and who has been provided Z Plus security, which has been further intensified recently in view of inputs of terrorists planning to target him. Of course, the security of the Chief Minister as well as other ministers and VIPs is important. Yet the same should be undertaken without causing much hardship and inconvenience to the common man, whose welfare is the primary responsibility of the government in a democracy and a welfare state.
The Chief Minister as well as other ministers who reside at one end of the Residency Road, which have been the traditional residential accommodations of the Chief Ministers and many other ministers, right from the dawn of independence and power transferred to the elected representatives of the people. During autocratic rule of Dogra kings this served as the office and residence of British Resident in J&K, during winter months. However, the resident who spent 6 months of summer in Srinagar, hardly stayed at Jammu during winter, but instead shifted to Sialkot, a town 40 kms from Jammu, now part of Pakistan.
Whenever the Chief Minister and other VIPs have their movement outside their official residences, even for going to Secretariat, State Legislature during the session or to attend some function, the passers by in the area as well as inhabitants in the vicinity are put to great hardship and inconvenience. The movement of all other vehicles is held up and even pedestrians are subjected to restrictions and not allowed to move on the road. Invariably this creates resentment among the commoners, who are very often maltreated by the traffic cops who use impolite means to effect clearance of the road for the VIPs.
The posh Residency Road is the hub of business in Jammu city and even some influential people, having their mark in various walks of life, live in this area. Many hotels are also located in the area and thus the area is very often thronged by the tourists and visitors from outside for various purposes. A proposal has been mooted for quite sometime now that to avoid inconvenience to the common man as well as to spare adverse effect on the business of the area, the Chief Minister's residence should be shifted from its present place. According to the reports a very spacious area in the old Ware House, where the offices of RTO are located, has been identified for constructing a building and spacious premises for the residence of Chief Minister. The area can also house the residences of many other ministers. The implementation of this proposal will spare much of inconvenience to the common man in the city, since the Chief Minister and other ministers can take the route of adjoining army cantonment for going to the airport or even for traveling out of the city on motorcade. There will be least inconvenience to the people in the city in that case. S short flyover from near Vikram Chowk, touching the Tawi bridge and existing flyover can be constructed for the VIPs for going to the Secretariat and even their motorcades going towards Nagrota etc. The security of few VIPs, including the Chief Minister should not be at the cost of convenience of the common people, who presently are kept as hostage to facilitate VIPs passage. |
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