Alleging that implementation of ‘half-baked and politically-motivated’ traffic plans are responsible for the chaos on the roads in Srinagar city, Kashmir Traders & Manufacturers Federation urged Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today intervene and sought this issue before it is too late.
“The Traffic department has taken entire Srinagar for a ride through the insane plans which only furthered the woes of commuters. Construction of the Jahangir Chowk-Ram Bagh flyover should be no excuse to put people to trouble,” KTMF president Mohammed Yasin Khan, who is also the chairman of Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA), alleged.
He said construction of flyover doesn’t mean that people have to spend all day stranded on roads, adding the ailing cannot reach hospital in time and others including schoolchildren stay helpless, while marketplaces suffer the most because of massive traffic jams.
Taking a dig at traffic police, he alleged the traffic police is doing secondary jobs of collecting fines at the cost of their basic duty of traffic regulation.
“If the duty of traffic police is restricted to revenue collection through fine then the department should come under the purview of the Finance Ministry,” Khan said, adding the traffic regulation is already so messy that potential shoppers avoid driving to the city center of Lal Chowk, Regal chowk and adjoining areas.
“At a time when streamlining the traffic flow was the need of the hour, things have deteriorated,” Khan said.
He said the government should not test the patience of the people, but act before it’s too late. (PTK)