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| More deaths in road mishaps than in militancy | | | When a Jammu based newspaper published a picture of an overloaded bus plying on a mountain route with over 50 passengers on its roof it did not seem to have caused any ripple in the Government circles. Even the police and traffic authorities were unmoved by the pict ure which was published hardly after three days of a major road mishap near Digdol in which over 23 passengers were killed.It is really tragic and very unfortunate on the part of the Government because the concerned official agencies have not initiated measures,that too firm,for checking overloading in buses which has been found the major cause for road mishaps,particularly in the hilly belts of the region of Jammu.And equally tragic is the way buses,which have outlived their utility,and have lost their road worthiness continue to ply on the hilly routes with the result the usually inexperienced drivers lose control of the rickety vehicles which fail to bear the weight of over 100 passengers against the capacity of 45.
As a result of overloading,rickety buses,bad roads between 900 and 1,000 people get killed in road mishaps per year in Jammu and Kashmir.During the last one year about 925 passengers were killed in road accidents in the state ,most of them in the accidents in the Jammu region.Official figures reveal that over 5,000 people were killed in road mishaps in Jammu and Kashmir during the last five years.And the same report reveals that the number of people killed in road accidents during the last five years is higher than the number of people killed in militancy related incidents and violence in Jammu and Kashmir. Does it mean that road accidents are a bigger menace than that of militancy? The Government that has been promising action against erring drivers, rickety buses, against overloading and against other malpractices needs to answer this question.
What seems to be a play for the Government seems to be death for the poor people.And what sems to be means of minting money for those officials and agencies that have been entrusted with the task of checking road worthiness of buses, driving licences and overloading ignore all these duties in the name of earning a fortune.Had it not been the case why would police officials spend heavily on ensuring their posting to the traffic department?If various malpractices would have not been money minting machines why would have then Government officials paying through their nose for getting posting in the traffic and regional transport departments. A situation has risen wherein the officials in the traffic department and in the RTC offices do not allow papers and cases to move from one table to the other unless each case or file carries a wad of currency notes. If the Government is sincere in reducing the number of road mishaps it can do it without having to move mountains.First thing is to check the road worthiness of buses,driving licenses of drivers,Every driver be subjected to driving tests after every two years.Those buses found to be outdated should be auctioned as junk by the Government in presence of the owners.A new plan be formulated for widening and renovating all the major roads in the hilly belts of Doda,Kishtwar,Bhaderwah,Poonch,Rajouri,parts of south Kashmir.For any road mishap traffic authorities need to be penalised.Above all additional traffic police officials be posted on all the hilly roads besides there was need for introducing mobile traffic vans on various hilly routes
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