Though remaining stranded on Kashmir highway for days together is not a new experience for the travelers on Kashmir highway but this is surely a new experience for travelers that they have to wait not for less than ten days for the restoration of traffic on the highway and consequently for the resumption of their journey to their desired destinations in Kashmir and Jammu. In a sorry state of affairs the stranded travelers find only workers of some NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations) and god fearing volunteers but not the functionaries of Jammu & Kashmir Government distributing food packets among them in the freezing temperatures at different locations on Ramban-Banihal track . Though the fast growing awakening on public accountability had generated hopes of an end to the sufferings of travelers during chilly months of winter on Srinagar –Jammu highway which they used to face in mid seventies or mid eighties but ironically the travelers on Srinagar-Jammu highway face the same situations which stranded travelers did not face decades back and equally distressing it is that the authorities of civil and police administration in both Srinagar and Jammu remain show no concern about the plight of the stranded passengers . Ironically the passengers stranded at Ramban-Banihal track after the collapse of a bridge near Ramban have been virtually left to fend for themselves by authorities of both the civil and police administration. Though Deputy Commissioner Ramban on Thursday this week reviewed the progress of the work on the bailey bridge being constructed by Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for resumption of traffic on the highway but he did not bother to visit the stranded passengers to mitigate their sufferings.
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While the civil and police administration could provide make shift tents for shelter to the stranded travelers, the affluent classes of the Ramban and it’s surrounding areas could have also arranged tents at affordable rates for providing the basic shelter facilities to the stranded passengers. Though a separate disaster management department has been established by the government long back but the very department does not tend to even reach out to the stranded travelers on the highway.
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In fact the district administration Ramban could have reached the places where the passengers are stranded immediately after the closure of the highway as the stranded travelers were now destined to spend chilly night in freezing temperature under the open sky for days together. By all standards of understandabilities the district administration Ramban owes a lot of explanations for it’s failures to both the travelers stranded on highway and as well as the top brass of the divisional administrations of both Kashmir and Jammu keeping in view the rising concerns of the families of thousands of stranded people. While the civil and police administration could provide make shift tents for shelter to the stranded travelers, the affluent classes of the Ramban and it’s surrounding areas could have also arranged tents at affordable rates for providing the basic shelter facilities to the stranded passengers. Though a separate disaster management department has been established by the government long back but the very department does not tend to even reach out to the stranded travelers on the highway.
