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| Pilgrims, passengers victims of chaos at gateway to Jammu | | | Jammu, October 1
For passengers aboard light motor vehicles it takes more than two hours to traverse the distance of about 20 kms between Pathankot and Lakhanpur toll post. It has become now a routine feature. It is nothing new as may be called rare incident.
Passengers traveling between Punjab and Jammu, including a large number of pilgrims to Mata Vaishnov Devi, have been facing this problem for the last couple of months.
Sanjay and Archana,who left Jalandhar at five in the morning of Sunday reached Jammu after 2 P.M. They told this scribe that their Toyoto car had to wait for half an hour at Madhopur bridge because of heavy traffic jam caused at Lakhanpur toll post.
Another one hour was taken to cross the Lakhanpur toll post.Sanjay and Archana have been regular visitors to Jammu and for the first time they have faced the problem.They explained that at Lakhanpur only one-lane road has been left open for traffic instead of three lanes. And several hundred trucks stand stranded pending clearance from the excise and customs officials.
Chintoo Singh,a driver,said that a group of unemployed youth had forged a nexus with some official of the excise and customs at Lakhanpur.These youths stop truck drivers for settling the amount they had to pay before clearance chit was handed over to them.Those drivers who refuse to grease their palms are forced to cool their heels with the resulting in prolonged traffic jams.
As the number of incoming and outgoing trucks continues to swell the Lakhanpur toll post area becomes a picture of chaos and congestion because there is no proper parking zone for these trucks.Since it is the season of export of fresh fruit,especially apples,from the Kashmir valley the lines of stranded trucks get longer day in and day out.
Passengers traveling from Punjab to Jammu had,on Sunday ,another painful experience.When they reached Samba people,protesting against the police refusal to celebrate Dussehra festival at the place of their choice,had triggered troubled.People blocked the highway for over an hour leading to traffic jam.
For first 45 minutes there was no sign of police to regulate the traffic. And when the police arrived things did not improve. Passengers aboard buses and light vehicles had to request Sambaites to remove the boulders which they had piled up for blocking the traffic which they did after initial resentment.
A seven-year girl,Ahana,traveling from Delhi,asked her parents if the entire police force was busy in fighting militants.She had posed this question when she felt inconvenienced over the prolonged road block with no one from the police or traffic department to clear the mess.
Charanjit Singh,a truck driver,said that “I have been plying on G.T.road,and on Jammu-Srinagar highway but I have not seen as much mismanagement on the GT road as on the Pathankot-Srinagar highway.”
He said “traffic police officials are seen only when they have to carry out routine checking which is the only way for them to extract money from us.”He said that whatever inconvenience passengers and drivers face owing to road blocks or traffic jams it does not seem to bother the police.”
Gursharan Singh,a travel agent,said “ I believe that bad roads and worse traffic management besides the chaos at Lakhanpur toll post may ultimately result in fall in tourist traffic to Jammu and Kashmir.
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