Traffic Dept. passes buck, says can’t tame traffic alone
|| PARA MUZAFFAR
The dismal performance of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation in putting lid over the encroachments in the summer capital of the state is leading serious crises on ground with the traffic department finding it hard to clear the vehicular chaos. What earlier was claimed by the SMC about ending the encroachments and ensuring smooth pedestrian and the vehicular movement are proving farce with entropy engulfing the scenes. With SMC failing bitterly to clear the footpaths and the main roads from illegal occupancies by the street vendors, traffic department is finding it hard to manage the smooth movement of the traffic.
What earlier was claimed by the SMC about ending the encroachments and ensuring smooth pedestrian and the vehicular movement are proving farce with entropy engulfing the scenes.
Reports inform that with each passing day, the number of vehicles only mount, giving rise to traffic mess that too during the winter months when the rush on roads in much lesser as compared to that of the summer period. With the traffic department being ridiculed for not regulating the traffic, the fact remains that the encroachments at large are acting as the spoilsport in the entire process. According to the SSP traffic Maqsood-UZaman, “All the departments responsible.’’ He says further, “our department cannot manage the traffic alone. He said that the 70 per cent of road surface in the city has been occupied and encroached by the vendors and shopkeepers. “Big shopping malls have no parking space for shoppers. In addition people also don’t prefer to use parking space and instead park their vehicles on roadsides,” Zamaan added.
With the traffic department being ridiculed for not regulating the traffic, the fact remains that the encroachments at large are acting as the spoilsport in the entire process.
The senior cop in the traffic department went further, saying that even challans aren’t yielding any results and that despite repeated pleas to masses, change on ground is becoming a distant dream. Meanwhile, what has put question mark over the functioning of the SMC is its failure to remove the encroachments and inability to clear the city roads and foothpaths from the occupation of the vendors. Now when the chaos and disorder has prevailed on the roads, the onus would lie on the concerned authorities over how it is going to tackle the crises which everyday after is going to add up if not tamed at an earliest.
According to the SSP traffic Maqsood- U-Zaman, “All the departments responsible.’’ He says further, “our department cannot manage the traffic alone.
A senior official within the dispensation said on the condition of anonymity that the vote bank politics involved in clearing the encroachments from the roads in the major factor of the process not yielding results. ‘’Every time the process gets initiated, there are hurdles being witnessed by various quarters. Sometimes it is the vote bank and sometimes the inefficiency of the helmsmen to put lid over the crises. Until, the entire process doesn’t get institutionalised, no major change would be witnessed,’’ he said. Meanwhile, people continue to bear the brunt of the traffic chaos in Srinagar with journeys of few minutes being undertaken for hours.
