It appears that the angel of death hovers invisibly over each vehicle plying on the hilly and tortuous roads of the State especially in Doda, Kishtwar, Bhaderwah, Reasi, Udhampur and Ramban sectors. Most of the road accidents taking maximum toll of life occur in these areas. The tragedy is that season in and season out meetings of higher ups in the Transport Department and allied branches take place with no less a VIP than the Governor or the Chief Minister in the chair to deliberate on the issue of road accidents in which very encouraging suggestions are made. But at the end of the day, the result of all these meetings is nothing except increasing the volume of files and records. On the ground unfortunate fatalities continue to occur and families are destroyed with their bread earners being killed or maimed for life.
We have been writing profusely on this subject. We have been taking the Road Transport and R&B Departments to task. We have been raising finger of accountability towards them and accusing them of negligence of their responsibilities and dereliction of duty. After every road accident, inquiry is conducted and the causes of the accident are to a large extent the same that have so often been stated. The question is why no preventive measures are taken effectively and why no action is taken against the defaulters? After every accident cacophony like J&K Road Safety Council, Regulatory Authority, Road Safety Policy, Road Safety Fund or Road Safety Act etc. makes rounds in official circles. There is no end to it but the result is zero.
A 23-seater minis bus carrying no fewer than 56 passengers, more than the double, many of them hanging on sideways or sitting on the rooftop, was plying on a road full of potholes over the hilly track from Udhampur to Barmeen Ghordi turned turtle at a dangerous curve 22 miles from Udhampur and fell deep into a gorge as the driver could not maintain control when the bus lurched to one side. Three students of 15-16 years of age and an aged lady teacher were killed while 56 passengers were injured some critically. The injured have been admitted to the District Hospital Udhampur where many officials visited them to enquire about the treatment and facilities provided to them by medical authorities.
Same questions that have been asked umpteen times will be asked. How come that for a distance of 22 miles not a single traffic control functionary stopped the bus and asked the driver how he was allowing overloading on a dangerous road? Did all the 58 passengers board the bus at starting point which is Udhampur bus stand or were some of them picked up as the bus was plying? If these passengers boarded the bus at the starting point, why did not the traffic authorities take action on spot and disallow the driver to proceed unless extra passengers were asked to leave the bus.
The fact is that nobody is serious in taking steps suggested by various committees to reduce casualties in road accident. Governor N N Vohra while running the affairs of the Government in early last year had convened a special meeting of the J&K Road Safety Council on February 14, 2015 in order to deliberate upon the grave issue of loss of lives on roads due to tragic accidents. He had explicitly told the concerned authorities to finalize the Road Safety Policy and create Road Safety Fund to finance road safety activities in entire Jammu and Kashmir on large scale. Moreover, directions were issued for conduct of safety audit of all the roads in the State to identify the black spots for initiating corrective measures so that poor condition of roads doesn’t lead to more accidents in future. What we find is that none of these suggestions have been taken seriously for implementation. Road Safety Fund scheme must receive green signal from the Finance Department. Nothing is moving at that level. Road Safety Bill which should have been introduced in the previous session of the Assembly was not submitted and shall have to wait for the next session. Till then fatalities will continue to occur. There is complete lack of sense of responsibility at various levels.
Transport Department complains that there is acute shortage of manpower and duties cannot be managed effectively by the existing staff. 19 districts in the State are all short of adequate staff. It is also stated that funds are not released by the Finance Department in time and as such repair of roads and providing safety measures suffer. In this connection Dr Jitendra Singh, MoS in PMO and MP Udhampur-Doda Parliamentary constituency, while expressing his grief over the accident, lamented that despite sanctioning of funds under CRF, the Udhampur-Barmeen-Ghordi road could not be macadamized so far due to the failure of State Government, which did not release the approved funds. There is some inherent default in the administrative structure that has become the bottleneck for not releasing funds in time. This is a serious matter and Government has to explain to the people what steps it is going to take to stem the rot. In a democracy in such situations the people are left with no alternative but to take the law in to their hands which clearly is a sign of failure of the Government. The manhandling of the local MLA by the students and the crowds when he came on the spot to make assessment of the losses is a clear indication of what can happen when people disregard law and order.
In yet another road accident five non-local labourers were killed in a road accident near Taru Thing in Ladakh. They were riding a tipper which is reported to have met with an accident while heading towards Leh. The labourers being non-local were taken care of by the police. Were these labourers insured or not is not known. Who had engaged them, on what conditions and how the fatalities occurred, nothing is known about these matters. Will their kith be paid ex-gratia or not because they are non-locals and whether the law allows their kith and kin or close relatives to become recipients of ex-gratia are all things nobody knows anything about. True that the Governor and the Chief Minister and others have expressed condolence and their sympathy to the bereaved families but that is not all. The Government should come out with a statement informing the people what succour it will be providing to the next-of- kin of the labourers killed in road accident.
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