Srinagar: After some cosmetic measures taken by Traffic Department, Mushtaq Ali Memorial Press Enclave here in Kashmir capital Srinagar has yet again turned into a parking lot as scores of vehicles could be seen parked in the middle of the Enclave day in and day out thus putting journalists into a lot of trouble.
Srinagar’s Press Enclave houses the offices and sub-offices of various local, national, and international news organizations and all the journalists working for these organizations have been facing a lot inconvenience. The Enclave has not only turned into a parking lot but hawkers and kiosks have encroached upon a chunk of the Enclave. Administration has been showing no serious concern about this mess and as a result the Journalists continue to suffer.
Last month, traffic police department had seized several vehicles parked in the press enclave by outsiders but as the cops stopped visiting the Enclave, outsiders again started parking their vehicles without any check.
With the start of the day, outsiders’ leave their vehicles parked on either side of the Enclave and disappear for whole day. “I don’t understand why people don’t park their vehicles at Parking lots. These people should be taken to task and the traffic police should seize their vehicles. Such people have become nuisance for us,” a journalist told Kashmir News Trust adding that every time they catch administration napping on this issue.
Scores of people who visit Estates and Industries Departments on daily basis park their vehicles in the middle of the Enclave. Inappropriate and illegal parking frequently causes traffic jams inside the Enclave. Even people who frequently visit Press Enclave to register their protest to highlight their problems find it hard to assemble at a particular place as vehicles parked randomly in the Enclave compels them to take out a march towards busy roads of Lal Chowk.
“We are sometimes unable to open the gate of our office as entire space outside our office is jam-packed with vehicles,” said an editor of a newspaper adding that even the shopkeepers instead of parking their vehicles in allotted parking lot park their vehicles in Press Enclave thus occupying the space for whole day.
Journalists appealed Traffic Department to initiate against those outsiders who park their vehicles in the Enclave. (KNT)
