Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar on Monday expressed dismay over the “lackadaisical attitude of J&K admin in managing city commute and deplorable condition of roads in Srinagar and other areas causing discomfort to the commuters”.
This he, according to the NC spokesperson, said 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, DP Srinagar Peer Afaq, and minority wing convenor Sardar JS Azad were also present on the occasion.
The visiting delegation apprised Sagar about the dilapidated condition of roads and alleys across Srinagar and the resultant ordeal suffered by the public, particularly women, children, and patients.
They further said that a distance of a few kilometers 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 added. 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 macadamization 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 out under the smart city project are nowhere detectable on the ground. If this is the situation in Srinagar, it’s anybody’s guess what the situation would be in other towns.”
