ANANTNAG: Hundreds of passenger vehicles such as Sumo and Tavera cabs coming from different parts of south Kashmir in particular.are not being allowed into Srinagar city through Batwara area.
Instead, the vehicles are stopped at Pantha Chowk and the drivers are asked to make a detour through Lasjan to enter the city. Thousands of people, many of them travelling to hospitals and doctors, have to bear the brunt of this “illogical” diktat by the administration.
The commuters lament that the policemen on duty provide no explanation and allow no one to ply through Batwara, for reasons better known to them.
“Every vehicle coming from the four districts of south Kashmir converges at Pantha Chowk and enters Srinagar through Batwara. We don’t know why we are being asked to take this long detour and enter the city through Lasjan. It is illogical to say the least,” Imtiyaz Ahmad, a daily commuter between Anantnag and Srinagar, told Kashmir Reader.
He said that he has to reach Dalgate for work and because of this diktat he has to travel for an extra half an hour or more to reach his office. “I would have got down at Pantha Chowk and taken another vehicle but it is really hard to find one there, given that it is always peak hour when I reach there,” he said.
Other people had similar complaints. Like Mushtaq Ahmad from Kulgam, who was supposed to visit a doctor at a hospital in Sonwar on Wednesday.
“By the time I reached the hospital, the doctor had left. I had pleaded with the policemen to let our Tavera go through Batwara, but to no avail,” Ahmad told Kashmir Reader.
The commuters suspect that the traffic police are doing this to ease the traffic mess near G B Pant Hospital, though there has been no such explanation from the traffic officials.
“But even if they have to ease traffic, they are not supposed to do so at the plight of hundreds of other people. What traffic management is this?” the commuters that Kashmir Reader talked to said.
Kashmir Reader talked to Deputy Commissioner (DC) Srinagar, Mohammad Aijaz Assad, who said that he will look into the matter.
“I have just joined here and now that you have brought this to my notice, I will definitely look into it,” the DC said.
Meanwhile, repeated calls for two days to SP Traffic Srinagar city, Javed Kaul, went unanswered.

Suhail A Shah