Shivang Satya Gupta
Jammu, April 28: Jammu the summer capital of the state of Jammu and Kashmir better known to outside world as The City of Temples has been converted into The City of Potholes by the inept administration and lethargic public representatives who turn a nelsons eye towards the ever increasing potholes in and around this beautiful city.
The city which works as the base station for millions of pilgrims and tourists on their way to Katra and Kashmir has seen the decline in its landscape and the city roads over the past one year while as our administrators and the public representatives seem to be ignorant of all the chaos prevailing in the city.
While local and national newspapers have highlighted the pathetic condition of the roads time and again the administrators have been playing a blame game with one department shifting the blame to other and the other one shrugging off its responsibilities by shifting the blame back to the latter even as the poor common man is the one who is suffering for the past more than one year with no solution in sight.
Earlier people used to wait for the historic Durbar Move when the ‘Sahibs’ of the power circles began their movement to Jammu with the roads, street lights and other landscapes turning into beautiful sceneries as if Harry Potter had waved his magic wand.
A ride through the city is enough to get a picture of the mess that has been created all over the city roads with almost no road without dozens of potholes after every fifty meters.
The stretch at Jewel Chowk, Jewel to Talab Tillo, Samadhian Road, near Asia Hotel Chowk, parts of Gandhi Nagar, Subash Nagar, Janipur City Chowk , Gumat Chowk, Kunjwani by-pass and Amphalla Chowk are the worst hit.
In fact one has to roam around the city to find a place where these irritating potholes don’t exist and one wonders whether the administrators or the newly elected public representatives have developed a selective amnesia about the sufferings of the people of Jammu city who have to bear the double brunt to avoid accidents and bear the cost of repairing their damaged vehicles.
People are more worried due to the fact that the Durbar has shifted to Valley and now for the next six months Jammu will be on the mercy of the weather gods and one can only pray that his vehicle does not fall into a gapping manhole or over turns into a pothole during the rainy season.
It is a matter of great regret that people who pay their taxes as well as road taxes should be facing such huge difficulties with no one to take note or come to their rescue and the government instead of providing smooth roads is turning a blind eye despite the fact that all these powerful people utilize the same roads every day.
The blame also shifts to local MLAs who should have taken up the matter in the Assembly or with the government but then they too seem busy with photo ops and laying foundation stones of lanes and drains only.
At many places the blame is shifted to NBCC which dug up the roads to lay pipes and later forgot to repair with the departments like PWD and JMC saying it was their job to repair the roads as per contract while NBCC is quoted as saying they cannot use heavy machinery to save the pipes. The question here arises who will save the common commuters from the wrath of the bad roads which is a cause of accidents and damage to their vehicles.
The problem gets compounded by the massive encroachments on roads and streets by the shopkeepers and ‘rehriwalas’ besides irregular and illegal parking by the people leading to massive traffic jams and inconvenience to the people.
With the coming hot and humid summer months, Jammuites are set to face the real test of their nerves with snarling traffic and ever deepening potholes around the city.
It is time the city administration wakes up to the fact that it is expected to govern and provide a smooth life to the residents before the people come out on streets to fight for the good roads. The local MLAs and ministers must also rise to the occasion and try to resolve the problem instead of just issuing press notes and forgetting the miseries their people are in.
It is only hoped that our law makers would pull up the local bureaucracy to act and stop converting this holy City of Temples into the unholy City of Potholes.