Commuters allege harassment

Qazigund, Jan 12 : Commuters traveling on 300-km Srinagar-Jammu highway alleged that Traffic policemen deployed on the highway are making “brisk money” on the pretext of doing their duty.

 Annoyed truckers and motorists while talking to Greater Kashmir said that despite highway being clear and free from any obliteration or land slip the traffic cops were unnecessarily harassing the drivers.

 The traffic authorities could easily allow two-traffic on the highway on almost all fair weather days, but, they are restricting the traffic only to “exploit the helplessness” of truckers and motorists who are compelled by personal reasons to travel on the highway, alleged a group of truckers and motorists.

 “If some one reaches Qazigund even a few minutes past 12 noon, he is not allowed to proceed further till he greases the palms of the policemen deployed there,” a section of truckers from Punjab and Haryana alleged.

 “Almost at every point on the highway traffic cops harass us. In order to avoid such harassment most of the truckers, particularly from outside JK, prefer to travel during night hours,” they added.
 Some motorists demanded stern action against the erring cops for violating norms and indulging in malpractice on the highway alleging that most of the traffic jams were engineered by the traffic cops.

 They said that these cops position themselves at blind curves to catch the unsuspecting victims and extract money from them on flimsiest grounds. The motorists demanded that the GREF authorities also need to be disciplined for their hobnobbing with the traffic cops.

 "The state government should appoint a high level team to monitor and regulate traffic on the highway during winter season which should include two Divisional Commissioners and respective Dy Commissioners to circumvent chances for the malpractices by traffic cops", commuters demanded.

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