Kishtwar District, Chenab Valley: Jammu & Kashmir is a region where humans are of a little less value, in fact, they are not even treated like humans, they are more like political tools who get run over for personal gains. A few days ago, a tragic accident at the Mughal road claimed a dozen innocent lives. Nine young girls under the age of 24 lost their lives in this incident. Besides this, another major accident in Kishtwar resulted in the deaths of 35 people among whom was a 45-days-old baby. In the last few years, a series of road accidents have claimed thousands of innocent lives in Chenab Valley and nearby areas.
On July o1, 2019 another heart-wrenching accident in Kishtwar witnessed the killing of 35 passengers along with 16 who were severely injured and four who had minor injuries. The Road Transport and Highways Ministry is responsible for these accidents, and they must be held accountable for their negligence, which has resulted in so many innocent deaths on the inter-district routes.
It was a black day for Kishtwar and a good day for our political representatives. The incident gives them a chance to show their sympathy towards this tragic accident, and they get to offer their condolences on social and print media.
The poor condition of the roads and a lack of proper infrastructure to implement traffic rules leads to rash driving resulting in accidents now and then in the Chenab Valley. The passengers travelling on buses and other transport services have lost their lives for no fault of theirs. In most cases, the accidents have been attributed to the overloading of public transports and poor condition of the road. Several buses and other vehicles have fallen into the Chenab river and have not been traced yet, and for months there was no information on the whereabouts of the passengers either. Sadly, some of the bodies were recovered from the river tens of kilometres downstream after many weeks.
The terrible condition of the inter-district roads makes them unfit for travel, but with no other way for connectivity people end up using these roads and often meet with accidents on these dilapidated roads. The government and its agencies wake up to the situation only after some major accident has taken place.
In 2011-12, the NC Congress headed by Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister of the state formed a team under the supervision of M Y Tarigami which made a report analysing the root cause of increased traffic accidents in Chenab Valley. The detailed report was submitted, but till date, no initiative has been taken to prevent these accidents. The authorities seem to go back to sleep after cooking up half-hearted measures to tackle this situation. They make false promises to improve the conditions of these roads as well as the commuter services, but none of these ever get fulfilled. Everything is forgotten once people’s anger subsides.
No previous government has bothered to improve the commuter services for the convenience of the people living in far-flung areas in the absence of dependable and reliable transport operations in the Chenab region. The inter-district routes have resulted in many untimely deaths of young and innocent people, parents, children, students with their hopes lost and dreams unfulfilled. Roads in Chenab Valley seem to have turned into serial killers—as accidents claim more lives than the violence in the state.
As per the sources available, militants have killed 550 people in encounters, while the road accidents killed more than 900 people in 2018. Every day, fatal accidents take place on the Jammu-Srinagar, Jammu-Poonch, Jammu-Kishtwar highways—including the Chenab Valley and other periphery roads—claiming several lives. This continues to happen on our roads, while the authorities do little or nothing to improve the conditions of roads or penalize the drivers for rash and negligent driving. The figure of road accidents is huge, but ironically, the response of state government is too little.
Instead of taking the necessary steps to prevent traffic accidents, the corrupt traffic police is indifferent towards the loss of precious lives—as it is more worried about collecting bribes (Hafta) from the transporters and drivers.
Just like the corruption of traffic police, the condolences from the political representatives, civil societies and NGOs in Chenab valley have become habitual. As I have raised this issue several times, the PMGSY authorities have been continually harassing me. I have filed an online complaint in Jammu & Kashmir’s Governor Greviencie Cell, and an investigation is going on. My complaint was about the Dunadi Bunjwah KewaPull Kither road in Kishtwar district, where the JKPCC withdrew more than ₹10 crore without doing any work. The authorities are trying to hush up this issue and are continually harassing me and asking me to compromise on a matter which needs the administration’s attention.
One thing that hurts me a lot is that soon after such incidents, I see the condolences messages circulated by various political leaders demanding ex gratia relief and free medical treatment for the injured ones. As a citizen of the Republic of India, I want to ask the so-called representatives and every citizen of the Chenab Valley, who is responsible for these accidents?
I have demanded to lodge an FIR under section 302 against PMGSY Kishtwar, ARTO Kishtwar, Health authorities Kishtwar, Traffic Police Kishtwar and political representatives who are responsible for the Keshwan Kishtwar tragedy. It is time to join hands to file a PIL in Hon’ble High Court Jammu against the authorities who are responsible for the loss of precious and innocent lives.
During the election rallies, the politicians made big promises to the voters, but the reality is different, and those promises were false. In the last few years, thousands of precious lives have been lost in road accidents due to slide-prone areas, violation of traffic rules, overloading, rash driving, and lack of proper transportation. But unfortunately, the state government has failed in determining the cause of these accidents and taking necessary steps to ensure better road connectivity in Chenab Valley and other regions of the state.
For years, people at the helm of affairs have turned a blind eye to this burning issue and practically done nothing to take action against the negligent elements within the administration nor addressed the root cause of these tragedies. The roads in most of the hilly areas of the state have become death traps. The highest number of road mishaps take place in Chenab region of Jammu comprising the three districts of Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban. The authorities have behaved like mute spectators while a number of accidents take place every day.
There is a need for a traffic checkpoint at every 5 km in the twin districts Doda and Kishtwar and the need of the hour is to create a post of SSP Traffic for both the districts. The requirement is to gauge the Batote to Kishtwar highway along with all the routes of Chenab Valley at a block level and increasing the number of SRTC buses to meet the transportation needs of the people.
Representatives and authorities need to put their heads together to come out with some corrective measures, which can result in saving hundreds of precious lives lost in otherwise avoidable road accidents. As most of the accidents are blamed on rash and negligent driving, the government should rise to the occasion, and initiate measures which can make a difference on the ground.
Touseef Khalid Sheikh, a social activist who was a part of the rescue operation in Keshwan Kishtwar accident wrote on his social media site, “Accident which took place today in Keshawn area of district Kishtwar claimed more than 30 precious lives, which is very hurtful. But the scenes from that village are even more disturbing and heart wrenching. When I along with the rescue team visited a family where women were mourning, “Assai Gow Garea Khalea” (there is no one left in our home), and at another house, two kids were crying and saying, “Soun Papa Kati Gow” (where is our father). What broke my heart into pieces was the dead body of a woman on a stretcher and the dead body of her child in the lap of a woman sitting next to her. How long are we going to be the victims of such tragedies? Who is responsible for all this? Government, administration, civil society, political leaders or we the people? May Allah grant the highest place in Jannat to those who lost their lives in this tragic accident and give strength to bereaved families to bear with this irreparable loss.”
Various philanthropists across Chenab Valley including Adv. Majid Malik, Tasleem Wani, Touseef Khalid, Junaid Malik, Baber Farooq, Danish Iqbal, Mohammed Shafi Mir, Suresh Kumar, Anzar Ayoub, Bhupinder Singh, Mubashar Hussain, Touseef Malik, Sadaket Malik, and others expressed their grief on the tragic accident and demanded personal intervention of the Hon’ble Governor Shri Satya Pal Malik and DGP Shri Dilbag Singh to file an FIR under section 302, and order a magistrate inquiry. They also demanded the termination of all authorities which are responsible for such tragedies and the creation of the post of SSP Traffic for the twin districts.
It is need of the hour to be united without any discrimination and politics to file a PIL in Hon’ble High Court and take measures for the proper maintenance and restoration of all inter-district routes in Doda and Kishtwar districts, for the safety of the commuters.