*Bureaucracy in inertia despite frequent tragic accidents
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 1: Establishing that administrative inertia has crossed all the limits in Jammu and Kashmir, several Administrative Secr-etaries, District Development Commissioners and other high ranking officers have flouted with impunity the directives of none else than the Governor, which otherwise were aimed at checking frequent road traffic accidents claiming numerous innocent lives. These officers have failed to meet even one deadline fixed by the Constitutional head of the State for implementing road safety framework till date.
Governor N N Vohra, who had number of times asked the State bureaucracy to adopt serious approach towards the increasing road accidents particularly in the hilly terrains of the State, passed several directions and fixed deadlines for implementation of the same while chairing high-level meeting on February 14 this year.
While fixing clear timeframe for the implementation of Road Safety Action Plan in the State, he had called for sustained efforts to substantially bring down the level of fatal road accidents, which on an average result in around 1000 persons being killed and 6000 injured every year. Right from the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police to Divisional Commissioners and Chief Engineers of the concerned departments took part in this meeting and assured the Governor about ensuring strict implementation of the decisions.
Shockingly, none of the deadline fixed by the Governor for initiating various measures has been met with thereby giving an impression that come what may there is no intention to bring an end to the administrative inertia and loss of lives in tragic road accidents is the concern of only Governor and nobody else.
The Governor had directed the Divisional Commissioners to ensure that meetings of the District Road Safety Committees are held on monthly basis but the process of convening such meetings ended soon after the installation of democratic elected Government and in many districts, no such meeting was held during the past two months, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
What to talk of convening District Road Safety Committee meetings, several Deputy Commissioners have even not strictly followed the direction regarding removal of encroachments along the highways, they added.
For installation of crash barriers on the accident prone spots identified by the Traffic Police, the Governor had fixed deadline of March 31 but the process has yet not begun and this compelled the Secretary, Transport Department to pass fresh directions to the concerned authorities in a meeting convened few days prior to closing of Civil Secretariat at Jammu.
As far as augmenting the strength of Traffic Police for better management of traffic movement and checking overloading and other violations, the Governor had asked the Home and Finance Secretaries to immediately take decision on pending proposals in this regard. “But till date no decision has been taken and Traffic Police Department is still clamoring for additional manpower”, sources said while disclosing that in five hilly and accident prone districts of Reasi, Udhampur, Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban and entire stretch of National Highway1A from Udhampur to Jawahar Tunnel only 149 Traffic Police personnel have been deployed.
About Specialized Certification and Inspection Centres and Driving Schools in Jammu and Srinagar, the Governor had fixed deadline of March 15 for furnishing of well considered proposals to the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Shockingly, even the land for such centre and school in Srinagar has yet not been identified despite the fact that Secretary Transport had taken up the issue with the Revenue Department authorities a number of times, sources said.
In order to ensure that accident victims get prompt and better medicare, which is essential to reduce the number of deaths, the Government had directed for making all the Trauma Care Centres and the Critical Care Ambulances fully operational by June 30. But not even a single step has been initiated in this direction, sources regretted.
For Road Accident Data Management System and GPS Tracking and Analysis in all public service vehicles, the deadline is May 31 but the same is unlikely to be met with as the concerned officers have not taken even a single step in this regard till date.
Safety audit of existing roads, awareness about road safety on monthly basis by involving NCC, NSS, Home Guards, Scouts and Guides and volunteers from all possible sectors, removal of encroachments from footpaths and checking overloading and over-speeding of transport vehicles are the other directions of the Governor, which have not been taken seriously till date, sources further regretted.
“This clearly indicates that only Governor is serious about bringing down the frequency of fatal road accidents and nobody else. Had there been any little bit seriousness in this regard, the concerned officers would have strictly adhered to the deadlines fixed by the Governor”, sources said, adding “this is the height of administrative inertia as directions issued by constitutional head of the State that too in the presence of heads of civil and police administration have been flouted with impunity”.
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