September 12
The Inspector General of Jammu Kashmir Police for Traffic and the popular cop, Basant Rath made an early morning surprise visit to the South Kashmir township of Islamabad (Anantnag) .
Preparations were seen in full swing, roads sides had been sanitized, vendors disallowed and traffic mess cleared in the shortest span of time as cops had been deployed every here and there.
However Basant Rath hardly made any moves away from the main roads, he perhaps walked the set ramp of Islamabad’s General bus stand and ignored the Traffic mess on the main roads connecting all the Districts and villages to the Islamabad township.
Pertinently the authorities had dug the main roads of Islamabad (Anantnag) town two months back and now the roads are awaiting the mercy of God, as no worker is seen doing any repairing work on the roads, other than a few on the pavements (footpaths) using luxurious tiles for the pavements, which many feel is unnecessary.
The work was taken up by the Urban Environment Engineering Department under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation with an estimated cost of 17 crore INR.
The residents of the main town in Islamabad (Anantnag) have held continuous demonstrations after which they have been promised the roads will soon be repaired. Even today, on Wednesday, the residents of Main town’s Mattan chowk, Kadipora have shut their shops down as it affects the business of the whole town.
Several important roads-including Lal Chowk, Court Road, Janglat Mandi, Shirpora, Mattan Adda, Ganjiwar, Kadipora, Sarnal, Achabal Adda, Iqbal Market and KP road,were dug up during the execution of the project.
“Why did he even come here? Does he not know they are responsible for this traffic mess, they have ruined our business, people are avoiding the main town because of the dust coming out of the dug up roads,” Ghulam Nabi, a shopkeeper at Lal chowk told The Kashmiriyat.
Another local vendor said that the authorities should wake up from slumber and see what they have done to the main town of islamabad and they seem to be least bothered about it.
Rath today visited the township, however ignored the main roads and walked the streets, doing nothing about the traffic mess, but walking the streets amid media cameras rolling on every side.
A Police official said that Rath was in the town for merely a visit and after proper surveillance of the town, he will formulate a strategy to clear the Islamabad streets from traffic mess.