The highways as well as the roads in Jammu and Kashmir, seems prone to the accidents here as one after another incidents are taking place here in the Union Territory, resulting in injuries or on spot death of the people, causing worry among the general masses. The drive to act against the traffic norm violators was years ago and crores of rupees have been recovered as fine from the erring commuters. However, such initiative has failed to bring fruits on the ground as there has been no end to the road accidents in Jammu and Kashmir. The road safety audit, awareness campaign as well as the rectification measures taken by the government has also proved less fruitful. The number of road accidents has been increasing with each passing day, which needs to be controlled. The million dollar question remains: who is going to take the step in the right direction that will help in preventing road accidents to a large extent. As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, in 2019, at least 4,37,396 road accidents were recorded in India, resulting in the death of 1,54,732 persons and injuries to another 4,39,262 persons. Jammu and Kashmir has gained the notoriety of being amongst the states or UTs having the highest percentage of unnatural deaths including due to accidents in the country. 1009 people died in 5839 road accidents in Jammu and Kashmir last year. As per the latest NCRB report, 364 people died in 2140 road accidents on highways followed by 118 deaths elsewhere. Nonetheless, the government in order to prevent the road accidents, should conduct an investigation to know the exact cause behind these road accidents and take the common people on board too to ensure that such accidents that mostly prove deadly, can be prevented as early as possible.
Macadamization of interior roads
Giving the reins of some of the roads in Srinagar to Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has proved to be an...