It is a known fact that despite improvements in infrastructure, road accidents have remained alarming in J&K, with almost all regions confronting this issue with equal severity. There is no doubt that traffic authorities have been investing a lot in the awareness regarding road safety among the stakeholders with Road Safety Month remaining a major endeavour on a yearly basis during January.
One cannot deny that the celebrations during the Road Safety Month do help in raising the level of awareness among the commuters especially the youth but despite this, the status of road accidents in J&K is abysmal and hardly a day passes without an accident being reported and a life being lost on the roads of the Union Territory. In this regard, the initiative taken by the Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) to conduct a special drive across the Jammu Division to enforce compliance with provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and to enhance overall road safety will surely help in enhancing road safety as penal action and hefty fines can achieve what mere counselling cannot. Reportedly, a comprehensive drive was carried out on the directions of Transport Commissioner J&K in the districts of Jammu, Udhampur, Samba, Reasi, Rajouri, Poonch, Ramban, Kishtwar and Doda.
A total of 24 nakas were established at strategic locations where 2494 vehicles were checked. During the enforcement operation, 445 challans were issued for the violation of the Motor Vehicles Act and 60 vehicles were seized for serious offences. Additionally, 64 driving licences (DLs) and 20 registration certificates (RCs) were recommended for suspension for grave violations affecting road safety. The total challan amount realized during the drive was Rs. 18.18 lakh. As the district-wise enforcement revealed significant violations, including overloading, driving without valid documents, permit violations, over-speeding, and dangerous driving, it has become imperative that all the wings of enforcement agencies should remain vigilant to stop traffic violations of all kinds.
Looking into the harm which the careless driving causes, it is the need of the hour that the concerned authorities should come up with a mechanism that such checking systems should remain deployed all through the day, weeks and months so that driving without care can become next to impossible in J&K as anything short of this would not work and therefore make this a reality sooner rather than later.
