Overiding Menace
Private vehicles continue flouting rules
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Rajouri, May 8
Taking advantage of severe shortage in the Traffic Department, private buses continue to flout rules and regulations thus putting thousand of lives at risk.

Ironically, every year hundreds of passengers loose their precious lives due to accident caused by overloading in the private transport vehicles here in these frontier districts.

In fact, Rajouri and Poonch districts are known for deadly accidents. Last year, on February 2, 19 passengers were killed and dozens others wounded when an overloaded bus met with an accident at Nowshehra of this border district.

Passengers hanging out on the rear end of a overloaded mini-bus in the town area here.
— Photo by writer

About a fortnight later, 16 people lost their lives in a road accident at Sawajian near Poonch while an overloaded minibus skidded off the road and crashed into a deep gorge.

On April 25 last year, again a crowded mini bus on way from Poonch to Surankote skidded off the road and fell into river Kalai claiming 30 precious lives.

Sources in the Traffic and Transport Departments said that inadequate number of commercial vehicles and shortage of traffic regulating staff allow private transporters to indulge in overloading.

“The state Traffic And Transport Departments have failed miserably in taking effective steps to check overloading in our border districts. There is shortage of commercial passenger vehicles. And absence of new permits to private transporters leads to overloading,” said Aejaz Ahmed, a resident and businessman here, who shuttles between Darhal and this border township on daily basis in the overloaded buses.

There is also shortage of traffic cops (just eight traffic cops in these twin border districts), which gives the private transporters free hand to overload.

A senior traffic police officer expressing helplessness to check overloading, said we do our bit to check it. “But we too are facing shortage of manpower,” he added. The local transport officers couldn’t be contacted.