Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 8: Expressing anguish over the Poonch accident where many lost their lives and got critical injuries, State President, Shri Ram Sena, held the state administration responsible on this tragedy.
"Roads in Jammu and Kashmir State, particularly in the hilly areas have, indeed, become death traps," he said adding that road accidents have consumed more lives than the three decades old militancy has devoured. He asked government to fix the responsibility of all the traggic accidents in the State on the erring traffic and road management agencies and bring in accountability to the system.
"We don't see traffic police at the places they are supposed to be to regulate the movement. But when they spot a lal Bati wallah they suddenly sprout on the roads as mushrooms do in the forest on the first spring thunder," he said adding that then they want everyone to disappear from the scene just to make way for the VIP.
These 'servants of the public 'have no shame when they refuse right of a passage even to an ambulance carrying a dying person to the hospital, he said. While the government is maintaining that it is trying to make roads safe, every year around 1000 people die in road accidents in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
Successive state governments have virtually ignored the road sector and even the state and national highways are in a bad shape, he said adding that the condition of narrow internal roads is worse where frequent road accidents are taking place. Despite tall claims made by the J&K Government, he said, nothing worthwhile has been done to ensure the passenger safety. Though 95 per cent of the total population of the state is dependent on the road transport, the aspect of passenger safety has been completely neglected. |
