Srinagar, July 17: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar on Monday expressed dismay over the “lackadaisical attitude” of the J&K administration in managing city commute saying the “deplorable condition” of roads in Srinagar and other areas is causing discomfort to the commuters.
According to a party statement, Sagar said this while meeting a number of public and workers delegations from across Srinagar at the party headquarters Nawa-e-Subha, Srinagar. Among others, zone president Ali Mohammad Dar, provincial vice presidents Syed Tauqeer Ahmed, and Ahsan Pardesi, provincial secretary Showkat Mir, district president Srinagar Peer Afaq, and minority wing convener Sardar J S Azad were also present on the occasion.
The visiting delegation apprised Sagar of the dilapidated condition of roads and alleys across Srinagar and the resultant ordeal suffered by the public, particularly women, children and patients, the statement said, adding, “They further said that a distance of a few kilometres takes hours. Every day, the traffic authorities are doing fresh experiments – blocking some entries and unblocking some, diverting and un-diverting traffic at different points and these frequent experiments are, instead of solving the problem, only adding to the existing ones. They also lamented that besides causing problems for local commuters, bad roads in and around the city are maligning the image of Kashmir as a top tourist destination.”
Echoing the sentiments of the visiting delegations, Sagar said, “Authorities are delaying macadamisation for reasons better known to them. The roads, especially in Lal Chowk, are presenting a pathetic look, while those in the rest of the city are also craving official attention. The developmental dividends of the much-touted works carried under the smart city project are nowhere detectable on the ground. If this is the situation in Srinagar, it is anybody’s guess what the situation would be in other towns.”
