Sajidah Yousuf
Srinagar, May 29: The sloppy driving and use of mobile phones has claimed over 766 lives in the past five years on Ramban stretch on Srinagar-Jammu national highway, officials said.
The official figures available reveal that on the National Highway (NHW) Ramban, at least 766 deaths have been recorded due to the overloading, rash and negligent driving and use of mobile phones while driving in the past five years.
The information was revealed by the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Traffic) National Highway Ramban in a reply to the queries of Right to Information (RTI) application filed by the activist M M Shuja.
The traffic police department has stated that on the national highway Ramban at least 291 officers and Special Police Officers (SPOs) are deployed to check the regulation of the traffic. It also states that from the year March-2016 to March-2021, there have been 1,265 deaths during traffic accidents on NHW Ramban.
Sharing further details, the officials said nearly Rs 9.65 Crores have been recovered from the violators from March-2016 to March-2021 on the highway.
The officials also said that a total of 547 traffic awareness programmes have been organized by the traffic police and 16 programmes were jointly organized by traffic police and regional transport office Ramban in these five years.