JKAP concerned over frequent closure of Sgr-Jammu Highway

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) spokesman Javid Baig on Friday expressed deep concern over the frequent closure of Srinagar-Jammu Highway which has caused skyrocketing in prices of essential commodities besides creating impediments in safe return of stranded people.
In a statement issued here, Baig said it is highly unfortunate that the only road connectivity between Kashmir Valley and rest of the country remains cut off for the people most of the time every year. “It seems this all weather road connectivity between Srinagar and Jammu is of the least priority for the Government of India,” Baig remarked.
He said that the recurrent interruption on this road due to landslides and shooting stones has now become a permanent feature of this so called National resulting into immense sufferings to the people especially that of Kashmir Valley. “The intermittent closure of this highway has led to the crisis like situation in Kashmir region amid the COVID Pandemic. Not only is there a shortage of essentials but the prices have gone up making shopping unaffordable for a common man,” he observed.
The JKAP spokesman said that not only the skyrocketing prices of goods but the closure of the National Highway has created a lot of problems for the people who are stranded because of COVID-19 in both provinces and want to travel to their respective homes as soon as possible.
“For the last over seven decades now we are being informed that the Srinagar-Jammu Highway is a top most priority for the authorities in Delhi. But the ground reality is contrary to this assertion,” he added.
Baig said the National Highway Authority of India and Border Roads Organization come into picture only when the landslides or shooting stones hit this road. “Otherwise there is no tangible progress achieved on the development of this prestigious project which is lingering on for the last many decades,” he remarked.
The JKAP spokesman urged the Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha to intervene into the matter and take up the issue with the union government so that there is some permanent solution to this decades old problem. “The government of India is also expected to address this long pending problem and order a time bound completion of this project claimed to be of national importance,” he demanded.