Stockpiling the essentials
Ahead of the marriage seasons in Kashmir valley and the festival of Eid-ul-Adha, the administration ordered movement of trucks carrying poultry and livestock through the Mughal road so that adequate stocks are made available to the people here.
The move was taken keeping in view the frequent landslides and erratic weather conditions on the National Highway.
The new order issued has asked the representatives of Kothadhaar Unions to start importing 150 sheep trucks per day and stock up 2500 trucks within a fortnight so that there is no shortage of mutton. Similarly, the representatives of Poultry Unions have been directed to start importing one lakh poultry birds per day after a week and stock up 20 lakh poultry birds for the valley consumers.
Due to the bad condition of the national highway and the movement of Amarnath yatris truckers and other transporters have been facing a tough time to carry supplies to the valley. The truckers have complained of bad management by the traffic authorities as the movement of trucks is not allowed for days together on the highway.
The situation is so bad that last week a senior official of the administration was not even allowed to carry his father’s dead body on the highway. The vehicle carrying the dead body was stopped for hours together and it was after intervention from senior officers the ambulance was allowed to travel on the highway.
Kashmir Valley is faced with a crisis like situation as many products like eatables, medicine and various products needed in our day to day life being out of stock.
Products used in construction and other allied activities are hard to find as wholesalers complain of hindered supply position owing to the bad condition of the highway compounded by the fact that most of the time authorities are allowing yatra vehicles to run while all the other vehicles are stopped for days together.
Besides, the problem has got worse as traffic authorities are not allowing truckers to run on the new highway route that is shorter and is connected to Nashri tunnel which will make their travel easier and less time consuming.
The trucks are being asked to travel through the old highway route instead of Nashri tunnel and because of landslides near Kud,the truckers get stuck.
The situation though alarming has once again raised questions about the present status of the highway and whether the highway is at all dependent for the supplies that the valley needs during the winter months.
Given the experience of past few years now, it can be said with ease that the highway has lost dependability as it remains closed for most part of the winter now.
Besides, limiting the movement of truckers on the highway has also raised several questions about our planners and the ill policies they conceive for not keeping an apt storage of essential supplies available in the valley.
KV Network
