Excelsior Correspondent
POONCH, July 7: Unmoved by the increase in road accidents, Traffic Department and other concerned authorities continue to overlook the overloading of passenger vehicles operating on different routes in Poonch district.
It has been observed that the vehicles plying on the roads in rural areas including Poonch, Mandi, Surankote, Mendhar are violating the traffic rules while Traffic Department has miserably failed to keep a check on the menace.
Locals while talking to Excelsior held the Traffic Department responsible for the increase in road accidents. “They have failed to check the overloading of buses, mini-buses and other vehicles which have off and on lead to fatal accidents in the district”, they added.
Concerned over the menace, they said ” The overloading of buses, Tata Sumos, Tata Magic vehicles in various villages of Mandi, Surankote, Mendhar and parts of Poonch and other adjoining areas have become a point of concern for commuters and daily passengers.”
“Less attention is being paid to monitor the overloading of vehicles, while matter of the fact is that the greatest damage to the pavement is caused by overloading,” a social worker Mustaq Ahmed Jatt said.
Another local Riyaz Ahmad said that, “there is an indifferent attitude of traffic police towards keeping a check on traffic defaulters which according to him has encouraged the transport operators who are plying passenger vehicles on road to indulge in overloading causing inconvenience to the general public and becomes a cause for fatal mishaps.
Drivers are playing with the lives of passengers while the concerned authorities are in a deep slumber. One fails to understand why the concerned department is not taking any action against those who do not have Driving License (DL), which is also creating a huge problem for the general public.”
Pertinent to mention here that a vehicle (Tempo traveller) carrying students of a private computer learning centre travelling from Surankote to Dhobijan met with an accident near Pir Ki Gali along the Mughal Road last week which resulted in the death of 11 students, 9 of them girls, and injuries to 7 others. The driver of that vehicle was said to be suffering from eye sight problem and was issued license by the transport authorities.
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