Private vehicles flouting traffic norms in Poonch, Rajouri

Alleged nexus between traffic police, transporters

MS Nazki 

Poonch : Taking advantage of severe shortage of staff in the Traffic Department, private buses continue to flout rules and regulations thus putting people’s lives at risk in twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri.

Ironically, every year hundreds of passengers lose precious lives due to accidents caused by overloading in private transport vehicles here in these frontier districts.

In fact, Poonch and Rajouri districts are known for deadly accidents. Hundreds of passengers have been killed and thousands others wounded during the last many years.

Sources in the Traffic and Transport departments said that inadequate number of commercial vehicles and shortage of traffic regulating staff allows private transporters to indulge in overloading.

“The state Traffic and Transport department has miserably failed in taking effective steps to check overloading in the border districts. There is shortage of commercial passenger vehicles. And absence of new permits to private transporters leads to overloading,” a social worker Er M R Kazafi who shuttles between Poonch and Rajouri border township on daily basis in the overloaded local buses, said.

The menace of overloading has put people’s lives at risk with buses and sumos being jam-packed with passengers. The students moving to and from schools also prefer to board jam packed buses in order to reach school on time.

Reports of overloading are mostly being received on Surankote, Buffliaz, Potha, Mandi, Kalaban, Thanamandi, Dharal and Poonch and Rajouri routes.

Even though the government had issued instructions to Tehsildars and Naib Tehsildars to check overloading in their areas, nothing has changed on ground.

Meanwhile, sources said that traffic police has also failed to stop private transporters from overloading. “There is nexus between the transporters and traffic police in the area,” they said.

“There is hafta system prevailing,” sources alleged. “The traffic police in Mendhar, Thanamandi, Surankote Mandi, Poonch and Rajouri receive monthly hafta from drivers and let them do what they want.” (GNS)