Politics

National Conference bats for early polls in Jammu and Kashmir

Farooq Abdullah

Jammu | National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Thursday sought early conduct of elections in Jammu and Kashmir, apprehending that the BJP may attempt to get these delayed for the “fear of imminent defeat” due to its “misgovernance and failure” in keeping up the promises.

“Hold elections and the people of Jammu and Kashmir, not New Delhi, will choose the government they want for themselves,” Abdullah said while paying homage to B R Ambedkar at a function held at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan here. He said a stable and strong government alone can lead the state to peace and development.

The alliance on crutches, he said, does not suit the state, which is facing numerous challenges and exuded confidence that National Conference will get a “massive” mandate.

Referring to the landslide victory of NC in 1996, Abdullah said a discernible transformation was brought by building militancy damaged infrastructure, opening of schools, strengthening of health institutions, functioning of the various utility services etc.

In 2000, he claimed his government provided a “record 1.50 lakh jobs” to educated unemployed. “This all happened because of the strong and stable government,” he added. Abdullah complimented Governor Satya Pal Malik for dissolving the Legislative Assembly and ending the five months’ era of “confusion and suspense with BJP desperately trying to manage support for installing a particular person as the chief minister”.

Even the visit of BJP general secretary Ram Madhav to Srinagar failed to garner support for that person, who had made all the preparations for swearing in ceremony, he said.

Without naming the BJP, the NC chief lamented over “ill-conceived” decisions on GST and demonetization, saying these have “choked” avenues of employment and growth by adversely affecting industries and related sectors.

Even the state like Jammu and Kashmir could not escape from the ill-effects of anti-people policies perused by the Centre. He said the institutions have been destroyed by deploying RSS people in these, thus compromising with their identities. He said he had pitched for opening of Kailash-Mansarovar route via Ladakh, which however did not happen. He hoped that Modi would consider taking up this issue with Beijing.

Abdullah also assailed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for showing “least concern” over the killing of a police officer in Bulandshahar by a mob. “Instead of visiting the family, Yogi chose to attend a sports event,” he alleged.

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Around 15,000 deaths in road accidents due to potholes ‘unacceptable’, says SC

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New Delhi | The Supreme Court on Thursday termed the death of nearly 15,000 people in road accidents caused by potholes in the last five years “unacceptable” and said the number was probably more than those killed on the border or by terrorists. This indicates that authorities concerned are not maintaining the roads properly, a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said.

“It is unacceptable that such a large number of death takes place on roads due to potholes,” said the bench, which also comprised Justices Deepak Gupta and Hemant Gupta. The bench perused a report filed by the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety, headed by former apex court judge Justice K S Radhakrishnan, which said 14,926 persons had died in road accidents due to potholes from 2013 to 2017 across the country. “It is almost 15,000 deaths in five years, probably more that those killed on border or by terrorists,” the bench said, adding, “These are government figures”. The bench asked the Centre to file their response on the committee’s report after consulting all state governments and posted the matter for hearing in January.

Advocate Gaurav Agarwal, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said the committee has filed a report on the issue following the apex court’s direction and consulted all the states. He said the data on death in such accidents was based on the figures of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The bench observed that many authorities like the municipal corporations, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), concessionaires working with them or the state road departments would be responsible for these deaths as they were not maintaining the roads.

Referring to the number of deaths, the bench said, “This is absolutely a very high number and indicates that concerned authorities whether they are municipal corporations, state governments, NHAI and others are not maintaining the roads”.

The bench also observed that no compensation was paid to the victim’s family in such cases and legal representatives of the deceased have to “live with the unforeseen tragedy due to lack of concern shown by the authorities”. It said no data was available before it about the number of persons injured in road accidents due to potholes and it was clear that “number of injured will be much much higher than the number of deaths”.

The apex court had in July termed as “frightening” the number of deaths in accident caused due to potholes on roads across the country and had observed that number of fatalities in such incidents was more than those in terror attacks.While hearing a matter related to road safety in India, the bench had also said that persons who have lost their lives as a result of accidents caused due to potholes should be entitled to compensation.
It had asked the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety to look into this “very serious issue” and file a report before it.

The court is also dealing with issue of compensation paid to the victims of hit-and-run and road accidents. It had also raised the issue of deaths in accidents due to potholes on roads, particularly in Mumbai, and said that according to reports there were around 4,000 potholes in Mumbai.

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