Yet another accident took place in Doda district today and this time too several precious lives have been lost and a number of passengers got injured.
Several dignitaries of the state including Governor, N.N. Vohra and Chief Minister (CM) Omar Abdullah, expressed grief over the road accident and conveyed their sympathies to the bereaved families and wished the injured speedy recovery but no one has tried to gaze into the root cause and came out with a strategy and plan to keep check on such accidents.
This is a matter of grave concern as the growing number of road accidents, particularly in the hilly areas like Doda are on increase for the last few decades but no agency/department has ever admitted their failure in containing them.
Though it has been observed, it was the bounden duty of all the agencies concerned with traffic management to exercise ruthless check to ensure against overloading, validity of driving licenses and the fitness of the drivers, condition of the vehicles, particularly buses and load carriers, but it is unfortunate whether there is any check against over-speeding etc to ensure against such tragic mishaps.
For last few years, it has been observed that traffic cops are deputed to check only documents and their validity, instead of overloading and health conditions of the drivers. Even than traffic cops are indulged in alleged ‘Hafta Vasooli,’ which has damaged the image of Traffic Police in the eyes of general public.
Drivers have been seen several times keeping some bucks in their hand, when they see some traffic cop on middle of the road to grease their palms, so that they could be allowed to proceed without checking. It is regrettable that for just few bucks, these cops are putting several lives in danger by allowing the overloading and faulty passenger carriers.
The requirement is to remove the stigma by showing some improvement and ensuring the safety of passengers, which could not be ensured by checking documents only. In-fact the traffic cops should check the health conditions and temperament of the drivers and assess that passengers are safe in the vehicle or not.
Let the old fashioned methods of checking documents, which ultimately assures revenue generation for the concerned agencies be changed and a new methods like health/physical checkups, mental checkups and checking the condition of the vehicle be done in addition to other which the planners think fit for ensuring safety of passengers be evolved at the earliest with sincerity and dedication.
Another issue which needs to be redressed is at the earliest is to ban the use of ‘Gutkha and Pan Masalla’ even cigarettes by drivers while driving. This practice is also emerging as a threat causing accidents. Though, our young CM Omar Abdullah has expressed profound grief and sorrow over the loss of human lives in the road accident but is it enough? The need of the hour is to devise a prolonged strategy and remove the bottlenecks in the agencies concerned to minimize such incidents in future which claim number of precious lives every time and leave several injured and handicapped.
As usual, this time too accident victims have been assured of best possible medical care but the planners of the state have to think deeply on the issue and frame some guidelines to revamp the traffic management department. People of state have great expectation from the young CM, Omar Abdullah and he is the only man who can bring in some change in the Traffic Department, not by making transfers, as were done by the past CMs’ but by making every official of the department accountable for their duties and responsibilities. The establishment of trauma centres on important stations all along the important routes is most significant, especially in the hilly areas, as in any eventuality, the injured have to be shifted to GMC Jammu. The time lost in shifting adds to the number of causalities. Up gradation of Sub District Hospitals, district hospitals and event the GMC is urgently required. Twenty four hour availability of specialists can help save many lives, if the number of doctors coupled with spirit to work for humanity is in place.
Leave Your Comments