It is good to know that the Institute of Studies, Learning and Analysis (ISLA), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) promoted by State Police organized a seminar on Traffic Management in which representatives of almost all stakeholders were involved. Road accidents are on the rise in our state and great concern is expressed by the Government and the civil society about this phenomenon. The traffic police have been active in implementing various suggestions to improve traffic conditions and reduce occurrence of accidents, yet much remains to be done in this area. The Minister in charge of road transport has pinpointed two reasons for crowded road traffic in the cities of Jammu and Srinagar. These are multiplicity of agencies to regulate traffic and great movement of rural population to urban areas for one or the other reason. As far as the multiplicity of agencies is concerned, the public is not having adequate information as to who these agencies are and how they interfere in the functioning of traffic Department so that they become more an obstacle than a source of help. Secondly, the suggestion of the Minister is that the rural areas should get the fullest possible infrastructure so that the people are not forced to come to the cities for solving their problems. This seems a far-fetched idea. After all, the people from even the remotest areas do need at one time or the other to visit the capital cities for resolving their problems or for better medical support. The real issue about the crowded Traffic in the two cities is firstly the failure of the Government to take steps in advance for widening the roads and clearing bottlenecks, something that should have been done three decades ago. The second is of controlling the proliferation of vehicles in the city. There should be some reasonable control on the number of vehicles that can ply in the capital cities. Thirdly and most importantly, there is slackness on the part of Traffic Police deployed on the roads. Unless they drastically improve their functionality, no improvement in controlling accidents is possible.
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