Excelsior Correspondent
KISHTWAR, Apr 5: State Forest Corporation (SFC) is playing with the lives of hundreds of commuters travelling on Kishtwar-Doda National Highway every day by turning blind eye towards unwarranted act on the part of its contractor.
Reports said that a contractor engaged by State Forest Corporation (SFC) has dumped thousands of wooden planks on the blind curve near Phagumarh area on Kishtwar-Doda National Highway during the past several days thereby endangering the lives of people travelling on the highway every day.
“The contractor instead of dumping the planks at some other location preferred the road side solely for the convenience in shifting the same to main depot of SFC at Jammu”, reports said, adding “due to unwarranted act on the part of SFC contractor the width of the highway has been reduced considerably on a blind curve and is fraught with the danger of causing vehicular accidents particularly during night hours”.
The Road and Building (R&B) Department, which is responsible to maintain Doda-Kishtwar National Highway has written to SFC and even asked the contractor several times to remove planks from the site but no heed has been paid to the request of R&B Department.
“A minor mistake can invite a major tragedy but the SFC is not initiating any action in this regard as the contractor engaged by the department is enjoying the patronage of some political leaders”, sources said.
When contacted, Mohinder Sen, Executive Engineer of R&B Department said, “we had brought the grave issue to the notice of State Forest Corporation (SFC) several days back but till date no step has been initiated to remove the planks”.
“The SFC would be responsible for any accident taking place due to unwarranted act on the part of contractor”, he added, adding “now we have brought this issue to the notice of District Development Commissioner Kishtwar GN Balwan”.
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