Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Jan, 02
Former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla along with Chief spokesman Ravinder Sharma ,Manmohan Singh,Corporator Gaurav Chopra visited GMC Hospital Jammu to enquire about the health condition of injured persons in today’s accident at Lamberi. Bhalla urged hospital administration to provide every possible medical facility to the injured.He also asked the District Administration Jammu to ensure that the injured admitted in GMC Jammu are provided the requisite medical facilities so that they do not face any inconvenience. Former Minister visited emergency wards of the hospital, interacted with the injured and assessed the Medicare being provided to them. He wished the injured early recovery. He demanded all possible support and financial assistance to the injured from the Governor Administration. Meanwhile, former Minister conveyed his sympathies to the bereaved families of those who died in the mishap.
He prayed for eternal peace to the departed souls. Bhalla demanded ex-gratia compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the kin of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh to injured. Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla said that overloading, absence of crash barriers, bad roads and inadequate buses are the prime reasons for frequent road accidents in the hilly areas of Jammu and Kashmir. One does not need any scientific study to go into the root cause of frequent road mishaps in hilly areas. Inadequate bus service leads to overcrowding, which is one of the main reasons for fatal mishaps. This leaves no option for commuters but to travel in overloaded buses on killer roads,” said Bhalla. Our road safety policy talks about multi-pronged strategy such as upgrading of roads, installing signboards, crash barriers, implementation of traffic regulations and increasing number of buses in hilly terrains to check road accidents, but there is nothing on the ground,” said Bhalla. The government must plan to introduce more buses in the hilly and remote areas to check overloading,” he said. Coordination is needed among district administrations, traffic police and transport department to keep a tab on vehicles plying in the hilly areas,” he said.
