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| Accident after accident and administration sleeps | | | BALBIR RAM | 9/14/2011 8:20:55 PM |
| Once again twenty two (22) precious lives were lost in a road accident that took place on September 13 at Neel Banihal on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. It also left other twenty four (24) passengers injured, some of them critical who have been air lifted to Jammu and admitted in GMC hospital for treatment. It happened when an overloaded mini bus (matador) in which they were travelling in, skidded off the road and rolled down into a deep gorge at Neel Banihal near Digbol under the jurisdiction of police station Banihal of Ramban district. The newspapers carrying report of this accident said that the mini bus having the capacity of 23 seats was carrying double number of passengers than its actual capacity. It further said that the driver of this vehicle failed to negotiate a sharp curve due to over speeding and over loading as a result of which it plunged into about 200 feet deep gorge on the bank of river Chenab. It was not the only accident which occurred on the said day but a seven year old boy was crushed to death by a speeding TATA Sumo vehicle on Qasim Nagar to Narwal Bye-Pass Road on the outskirts of Jammu city. While first accident took place at a distance of 163 kilometers away from Jammu, the second one occurred at a place not even 10 kilometers away from the winter capital of the state. Perhaps there comes any month in a calendar year when accidents are not reported from different areas of the state, with maximum number from hilly districts of Doda, Kishtwar and Bhaderwah of Jammu province. Increase in the number of such accidents and resultant deaths and injuries have shown that neither the government nor the directly linked departments have learnt any lesson from the past which have send signals that no matter how much accidents take place and how much lives are lost, the administration has least concern. In other words, it can be assumed that despite repeated accidents and loss of lives, the administration still sleeps, which is indeed very unfortunate.
Departments like Traffic Police and officials of RTO/ ARTO are two very important wings of the administration which have been bestowed with the responsibility to ensure that vehicles running on roads are in good condition, the drivers of these vehicles possess legal and authentic driving licenses, the speed of the vehicles is well within the prescribed limits and there is no over loading. One cant understand if these wings are performing their duties honestly why the number of accidents are going up. Why Surprise checks are not conducted to verify whether the drivers are not drunked or taking any kind of drug while driving ? Why regular checking of the vehicles is not done ? Still there is poor road connectivity in many areas, why ? Why the remote and far flung areas have not been given attention while finalizing the projects related to development ? Why timely repair work of the roads is not undertaken by the concerned department ?
It is often seen that after every such accident the ministers and higher officials in the administration issue statements terming these accident unfortunate and expressing sympathies with the bereaved families in such heart- touching words that any one reading the same get misled assuming that these are the persons who feel that their own near and dear ones have died. These people read their statements next day in newspapers and forget all what they said and what they suggested to check these accidents.
Human life is precious and can not be brought back at any cost. The administration should understand this fact and take effective and war footing measures to ensure that accidents do not occur. Although accidents can not be brought to zero level but concrete steps and will on the part of administration can reduce the number and bring to minimum level. The best way to check these accidents is to make the immediate concerned officials accountable and initiation of stern action against them.
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