People of Kashmir should seriously start thinking about not paying the road tax. The reason is simple: government does not deserve it. Instead it is the government which should actually be paying people for the damages suffered by their vehicles while moving on the broken roads here. Such is the condition of the roads and streets throughout the Valley including in summer capital Srinagar and downtown in particular that it has become really a nightmare to drive. And yet the government, and the concerned (read unconcerned) R&B Department, which should have been busy rebuilding these overly dilapidated, potholes-ridden roads, seems busy with something else. In such a situation if people actually stop paying road tax, it would not be without a reason.
Coming to the working of the R&B department, for the past couple of months it has been busy with the paint brush. As the Darbar began its summer stint in the Valley, road-dividers and pavements were given a ritual annual coat of black and white paint. And this was done even during rains. So it should not be difficult to understand what is going to happen to this fresh paint-coat. Similarly at some places, new tree-guards were installed – at places at a distance of barely 8-10 metres from each-other, which again defies logic, if one were to discount the kickbacks involved in it.
Now one may simply ask what is the fun of all thus ornamentation when the basic road surface is not traffic worthy. So big are the ditches at certain places that people themselves have put up big boulders or other visible blockades around these trenches to save motorists from falling into these. Thanks to this care and concern shown by the ordinary people, scores of possible roads accidents are thus avoided on each day. In such a situation it may not be out of place to blame R&B engineers, and for that matter even the officials of the district and divisional administration of being neglectful to the extent of being blind. Because if they were not, then they would certainly have taken care of their responsibilities!
Instead of wasting huge sums on the ornamentation works – like installing tree-guards or putting black and white paint on the edges of sidewalks — common sense has it that the authorities should first focus on filling up the ditches and potholes and if possible also lay a fresh layer of macadam so as to restore the road surface. Otherwise also fresh macadamization of Kashmir roads is long overdue. Ornamental works can follow at a later stage.
Now the authorities may want to shift blame on the continued unrest here during the summer months, or the harshness of weather during winters. But this explanation, even at its best, is only an excuse. It is true that owing to disturbances developmental works do take a hit, but then it is also true that various concerned agencies too have not invested the kind of care and concern they are supposed to chip in, and for which the state exchequer pays them fat pay packets month after month. Kashmir is not the only place which has harsh winters. There are scores of countries in Europe and Americas and elsewhere which have winters far too harsher than how it is here in Kashmir, yet road surfaces in these countries are among the world’s best.
Now that the Governor has taken over governance of the state, let’s hope the administration would, even if for the ritual sake, dedicate some attention to repair the broken roads here. Mind it we are talking about restoring the physical road surfaces within the Valley, and not about that mythical connectivity of “hearts and minds” between Srinagar and Jammu, or Srinagar and New Delhi, about which we have been hearing a lot all the time without actually moving an inch towards realizing this goal!
