DOST KHAN
JAMMU: Eleven persons have perished in a road mishap in Ramnagar Tehsil of Udhampur district. Many more are injured. Nothing new, as killer roads with poor traffic management in Jammu and Kashmir are used to claiming lives.
Unlike in the past, however, the news rooms were not flooded with Xerox copies of statements (due to absence of ministry), ‘expressing shock and grief, conveying condolences to the bereaved families, wishing speedy recovery to the injured and directing the authorities to ensure their specialised treatment and organise relief measures’. How funny? The ministers at the helm used to let people believe that unless their directions, neither evacuation of victims could be undertaken not would be treatment of injured.
However, for a change and amidst the pall of gloom, the Governor’s administration has ordered a magisterial probe into the circumstances leading to the accident. This is important though much should not be expected from the probe. A word has at least gone around that the apolitical dispensation is viewing the growing menace of accidents rather seriously. The Governor had, in fact, made a well-meaning beginning years ago to address the issue of vexed traffic mismanagement. However, due to malignant ‘administrative atmosphere’ these got lost in the din of chaos and confusion. It had been agreed during the high level meeting chaired by him that Information Technology would be applied for preparing a Comprehensive Accident Data Base Management and Analysis system to ascertain causes of road accidents and to devise effective approaches to eliminating these. It was also agreed to undertake regular Road Safety Audits and addressing all the contributing factors for fatal road accidents; upgrading roads, erecting protection barriers, creating adequate wayside facilities for the drivers and traveling public; developing emergency medical services and deployment of ambulances to attend to the emergencies arising out of road accidents. The left over job can be accomplished now, as the Governor is himself in command.
The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir had also made an intervention a few years ago to get the issues pertaining road management sorted out by the Administration.
Terrorism and road mishaps due to traffic mismanagement are two big challenges confronting Jammu and Kashmir. Killer roads have taken more lives than the demon of terror. While bulk causalities, like the one in Ramnagar today, get immediately noticed, those dying in day to day accidents find single column somewhere in the back pages of newspapers. One wonders whether anybody in any state department is maintaining the ‘day book’ of those who fall prey to negligent driving or get crushed under tippers or mini buses. And also, is there anyone at the top who feels pain of those losing dear ones and tries to fix the responsibility.
It is not only the erring road users who create havoc, road managers are equally responsible. If there would have been an effective mechanism, heads would have since rolled for allowing overloaded passenger vehicles cross Nakas and meet accidents. There is no denying fact that many of the accidents have occurred due to over-loading and over speeding. Each passing day headlines scream about people getting killed but never ever do words come about action taken against the offenders.
The road management in the State, especially in the twin capital cities, is in shambles. If the Governor is really interested in treating this cancerous disease, someone is needed to be tasked to move around incognito in a private car without escort and advance information. He will come to know the connivance between some unscrupulous men in blue, enjoying patronage, and private traffic pliers. He will also find his fists clinched while covering just three kilometers of journey in not less than half an hour. Reason is, a section of passenger transport playing truant with the vehicles in their tail while dropping or picking up passengers. The public transport pliers are at liberty to stop anywhere; maintain any speed they like as per situation; position vehicles in any direction to stop the other vehicles pick passengers. They are least bothered about the vehicles at their tail end, no matter if any vehicle is in desperate rush to carry patients to hospitals. That is none of their business. How do they enjoy this special privilege? This will not be difficult to know, given multifarious agencies at the disposal of the administration to gather inputs. As far as people are concerned, they know what all is happening on the Jammu roads. They know where traffic cops get themselves positioned and for what purpose. At least the objective is not to manage the traffic. It is more than that. At times one is shocked to find traffic managers occupying isolated places and engaged with private carriages for obvious reasons. Such a mechanism is fraught with dangers for public life. On finding men in blues positioned at unspecified places, the private auto-drivers or others make every attempt to give slip to cops even if it means crushing the pedestrians or rubbing the passing by vehicles.
The madness on roads calls for special attention to set the system right, if not fully but to some extent at least.
