The purpose of instituting an enquiry is to know about the causes, reasons , circumstances, lapses etc of a particular incident or happening and that how remedial measures could be taken for future. Shying away from coming out with circumstantial and other reasons including suspected sheer carelessness and dereliction of duty, which for example claimed the precious lives of 46 persons in Kishtwar and Mughal Road tragic road accidents a few backs back, was no solution to the problem. Whenever such tragic and heart rending accidents take place, call it administrative formality or an unavoidable alibi, a departmental or ‘high powered’ enquiry is ordered, the same happened in case of these two tragic road accidents. Traffic Police Headquarters, accordingly ordered for a departmental enquiry but more than a month has elapsed and still nothing of the sort has been done.
Are otherwise the concerned enquiry officers already in possession of material and evidential factual reports about the road accidents under reference? What is keeping them from making it public after submitting the same to the concerned authorities? Why and on whose behalf is lackadaisical approach adopted towards such a sensitive issue? Is the fear of imminent rolling of heads causing the enquiry officers feeling ill at ease that those who could have prevented such accidents were found grossly negligent? Probity and prudence all demanded that the finding should have been made known to the public by the top administration of the Traffic Police Department by sharing the details with the presspersons. That exercise could have lent due credibility to the exercise of instituting enquiries. Otherwise, it is an accepted feeling nursed by the people that mere ordering of enquiries was nothing short of an eyewash and divertive and distractive tactics to hide failures.
The vehicles in question were not only heavily overloaded but even did not reportedly carry fitness certificates and the concerned DTIs and SOs concerned had failed in their duty to prevent the overloading which prima facie established that they had indulged in gross negligence and had miserably failed in their duty. However, before any decision could be taken, it was decided in early July 2019 to hold a departmental enquiry and submit the findings within a fortnight but due to reasons beyond comprehension, the staff officer to IGP Traffic J&K and SSP Traffic City Jammu respectively who were assigned the duty to conduct the enquiry, have not submitted their reports . There are no reports for seeking extension of the deadline either and an unspecified silence over the subject is fraught with speculations of different hue. A trend requires to be set for fixing responsibility and accountability for the causes of tragic accidents taking place on the roads in the light of how much were the guidelines of smooth traffic movement especially on the hilly routes followed and the concerned authorities ensuring due compliance.
Since the direction of the winds in respect of treating attending to assignments and duties as responsible public servants are fast changing from the one of casual approach increasingly to total accountability, it was incumbent upon the public servants to remain careful, vigilant and responsive to situations rather than adopting casual and indifferent approach. The matter having reached the State High Court lends too much importance to the matter as the Division Bench had termed these accidents as dance of death on roads. It is, therefore, hoped that the enquiries would be completed at an early date and reports with pin pointed responsibility for the lapses duly submitted for an early action and pre-empting and preventing such accidents on the roads in future.
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