On his return from Pune, former Minister and President Dogra Sadar Sabha (DSS) Th. Gulchain Singh Charak held a meeting of his DSS core group. Members of this non-political 115 years old organization comprising members from all walks of life, all communities, religions and trades expressed grief over the perpetual avoidable losses of lives in road accidents in J&K with special reference to Jammu region where the death rate is highest. A press note was issued after the meeting.
The dance of death continues, said, Th. Gulchain Singh Chark as governments after governments have come and gone with tall claims but miserably failing to control the menace of overloading, speeding, talking on mobiles while driving or playing blaringly loud distracting music in public transport and of course bad roads.
Each accident is followed by messages of “shock & Grief”, some ex-gracias grants for the dead & injured strict check of the unrelated private car owners and their challans, raised ‘collections’ from public transporters at shady road bends an enquiries leading nowhere; and the milieu carries on till the next accident. Have we become so immune to the wailing and cries of the surviving family members of those dead in accidents? The total death rate in accidents in J&K is much higher than those killed in militancy related incidents.
The road accidents across J&K claimed more than thousand lives in the year 2015 while more than 7,000 people were injured. As per J&K Crime Branch (CB) 1006 persons – 824 men and 182 women died in road accidents while 7718 persons including 6206 men and 1512 women were injured in 2016.
In 2017 the CB registered 5626 road accident cases. In 2018 the number of road accidents jumped to 6000. A total of 6206 men and 1512 women were injured. The Jammu division witnessed most number of accidents, compared to Kashmir and Ladakh UT.
Out of 1006 people who died in these accidents last year, 136 were killed in Jammu; 103 in Kathua; 101 in Samba; 89 in Ramban; 71 in Rajouri; 59 in Udhampur; 44 in Poonch; 39 in Kishtwar; 37 in Reasi 37 and 21 in Doda.
Jammu and Kashmir has the evil distinction of being second highest across India in road accidents with an average of over 900 deaths every year, during the last five years, according to Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highway.
Out of the accidents in J&K UT, Most of the road accidents take place in Jammu. As far as Kashmir is concerned, the district of Srinagar reported the maximum accidents.
In 2018, Jammu topped the list after the state witnessed 1130 accidents. This is followed by the district of Kathua, Udhampur and Samba. Surprisingly, more accidents take place in plain areas of the state as drivers feel relaxed and tend to over speed. In the hilly areas, Rajouri and Ramban have reported maximum number of cases at 394 and 252, respectively.
In Kashmir region, after Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag districts have reported most cases of accidents at 223 and 214, respectively. The lowest number of road mishaps occurred in the Shopian district of South Kashmir.
The latest nerve breaking accident revealed that there were 17 persons loaded in a seven seater vehicle. The lone survivor has been identified as Taimoor, son of Mohammad Akram Wani of village Mangota. Preliminary investigation revealed that the driver was talking on mobile phone in one hand and steering with other hand, when the accident took place, but the exact reason may be ascertained once the investigation is completed.
The Government is yet to announce ex-gratia relief to the next of kin of those who killed in accident near Khellani in district Doda recently as. Shri SP Malik as Governor of J&K, had announced ex-gratia relief of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of deceased killed in such accidents during his tenure. Sh. Charak also demanded that the Govt. should depute some quite capable officers to find out the causes of such tragic accidents and lapses in performing the duty by the concerned agencies responsible for implementing the traffic rules and causes of such heinous crimes.
The meeting was attended by Col. Karan singh Jamwal, Prem Sagar Gupta, Gambhir Dev Singh Charak, Brig. M S Jamwal, Col. Dr. Virender K. SAhi VrC, Janak Khajuria, Kulbir Singh , Chhankar Singh , Syed Amanat Ali Shah, Madan Lal Bhagat Dr. Raghubir Singh, Dr. S K Dingra, Ravi Salathia and others .
