Srinagar, Dec 9: The administration Friday woke up to tackle traffic mess in the City including its two key entry points –the Shalteng and Pantha Chowk with Divisional Commissioner, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon directing the concerned to ensure smooth flow of traffic.
 Sources privy to the meeting said the Divisional Commissioner, who has been personally monitoring City developments, took a serious note of alleged negligence on the part of agencies like Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Roads and Building Department and ofcourse the police in their failure to facilitate smooth flow of traffic.
 However, he was cornered by senior police officials on some questions, to which, he didn’t presumably had a convincing reply.

ZEBRA CROSSING REVIVAL
 Dr Samoon reminded the Roads and Building (R&B) department of their duty to draw Zebra Crossings in the City. Pertinently, for the past few years, given the absence of any crossing points, pedestrians have to literally make a hit-and-try to cross the roads.
 This has been the scene even in the City centre of Lal Chowk and Jehangir Chowk, which apart from thousands of pedestrians is frequented by Babus and Mantris travelling by sedans. Here, like elsewhere the pedestrians are left at the mercy of speeding vehicles to cross the road.
 Still, the R&B department has been sleeping over the absence of this vital aspect of traffic safety norms.

REMOVAL OF FOOTPATH VENDORS
 While referring to the presence of footpath vendors in the City centre areas like Lal Chowk, Hari Singh High Street and Batamaloo; the Divisional Commissioner sought their relocation so that the traffic congestion could be avoided.
 An official handout said: “SMC was directed to ensure that the congested crossings get rid of the menace of vendors and some spaces be identified where the Raidawalas can be relocated so that the roads are decongested.”
 Dr Samoon also asked SMC officials to gear up their staff and ensure that no shopkeepers are allowed to showcase their goods on footpaths.
 “The SMC was also directed to identify parking lots so that shopkeepers and customers can park their vehicles without causing any traffic hindrance,” the official handout said.

OTHER ISSUES
 “Dr Samoon directed that the traffic should be professionally regulated at all places especially Panthachowk, Jehangir Chowk, Rawalpora Chowk, HMT Crossing, roads near hospitals, especially GB Panth Hospital, Sonawar and main arterial roads of the City,” the official handout said.
 The Div Com also reviewed the facilities at GB Panth Hospital and directed that Badamibagh Cantonment authority should provide adequate facilities at the hospital so that patient care improves.

THE MEETING
 These directions were given in a high level meeting which among others was attended by SSP Srinagar, Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari, Additional DC Srinagar MA Qadri, Joint Commissioner SMC, Fayaz Ahmed Bala, SP Traffic City, Haseeb ur Rehman, Superintending Engineer Drainage, Naseer Ahmed Dhar, Medical Superintendent GB Panth Hospital Dr Qaiser Ahmed, SDPO Kothibagh, Exen R&B Satish Razdan and other senior officers.

EXCUSE ME: POLICE ARGUES!
 While the Divisional Commissioner had his own directions, the officials from the police and its Traffic wing pleaded hindrances.

POLITICAL INTERFERENCE
 Sources said that the meeting observed that the police had equally failed to check the menace of footpath vending by not tacking action against the offenders.
 But on this the Srinagar police chief Syed Ashique Hussain Bukhari, as per the sources, responded saying that “political intervention” was hindering the removal of footpath vendors.
 Following this, the sources said, the issue was finally downplayed at the meeting.

‘STAFF STARVED MEN IN BLUE’
 As the Divisional Commissioner asked the Traffic Police to be “more effective”, the issue of shortage workforce popped up.
 The sources said the SP Traffic Haseeb-Ur-Rehman responded saying the men-in-blue were all the way active but that the shortage of workforce had been hitting effective traffic regulation.
 For the past over a year, as reported earlier, the staff starved Traffic police has been seeking expansion. Presently mere 200 odd men in blue man the entire City traffic as against the requirement of around a 1000 personnel.
 The Divisional Commissioner presumably couldn’t well defend the government failure to adequately strengthen the Traffic police.
 Pertinently, the National Conference led government has come under severe criticism for its failure to strengthen the Traffic police even though all the eight City MLAs, including the junior Minister for Home Nasir Sogami whose constituency faces worst of the jams, belong to the party.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 9 Dec 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 9 Dec 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:00 IST