Dy CM among 69 who missed flights due to Srinagar traffic jam
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
______
SRINAGAR, Sep 29: Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Prof Nirmal Singh was among the 69 Jammu and Delhi-bound passengers who missed their flights on Tuesday due to a massive traffic jam on Srinagar-Airport road.
Sometime around 11.30 a.m. residents of Galwanpora village staged a dharna and blocked traffic at Hyderpora on the airport road, officially known as Indira Gandhi Road. They demanded supply of drinking water to their neighbourhood with the complaint that officials and engineers of Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department had failed to keep their promise of providing to them drinking water from a stable source.
The people on dharna complained that nobody in the government had responded to their demands and complaint in the last one week even as Police had assured them eight days ago that the PHE engineers would address their problem within a week's time.
Entire vehicular traffic on Srinagar-Airport road, that also leads to Budgam and over two dozen major towns, came to a standstill due to the squatting of the angry residents of the area on periphery of the summer capital. Jammu and Delhi-bound passengers, who included elderly women, handicapped men and scores of young children, were seen coming out of the stranded vehicles and rushing towards the airport desperately while making efforts to catch their flights.
"It seems that there's no government in place in this State", a middle aged woman passenger carrying her heavy luggage complained.
It was only after 90 minutes of the anarchical situation that some Police officials and incharge DC of Srinagar reached the spot to mollify the demonstrators with the assurances that drinking water would be provided to the locality.
After about three hours of mayhem, authorities succeeded to convince the demonstrators for calling off dharna. Traffic was diverted to airport via National Highway Bypass and Rawalpora. It resulted in further jams on the Bypass. By the time traffic was restored, scores of passengers had missed their flights. Twenty of them were accommodated by Go Air in its late afternoon flights subsequently but around 50 returned to Srinagar disappointed. Some of the passengers were seen weeping over the predicament they were forced to face due to the authorities' failure to meet the demonstrators on time.
In all, officials said, that 69 passengers missed their flights. However, Go Air managed to accommodate 20 of its no-show passengers in the afternoon flights subsequently. Of the 49 passengers who returned to Srinagar, 25 were booked on Indigo flights, 11 on SpiceJet, 9 on Jet Airways and 4, including Dy CM, on Air India.
Sources said that DGP K. Rjendra Kumar pulled up many of the Police and Civil officials for their failure to respond to the situation on time. While as SSP Srinagar Amit Kumar pleaded that Hyderpora was the jurisdiction of Budgam district Police, officials said that DC Srinagar Farooq Lone was currently on mid-career training. SSP Traffic Srinagar Maqsood-uz-Zamaan said that he had just returned from Hajj and had not yet joined his duty.
Phone of DIG Traffic Alok Kumar was continuously switched off. Unconfirmed reports said that he was himself among some senior officers who arrived in from Jammu or Delhi, got stuck in the jam and walked a distance to come out of the mess.
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
______
SRINAGAR, Sep 29: Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Prof Nirmal Singh was among the 69 Jammu and Delhi-bound passengers who missed their flights on Tuesday due to a massive traffic jam on Srinagar-Airport road.
Sometime around 11.30 a.m. residents of Galwanpora village staged a dharna and blocked traffic at Hyderpora on the airport road, officially known as Indira Gandhi Road. They demanded supply of drinking water to their neighbourhood with the complaint that officials and engineers of Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department had failed to keep their promise of providing to them drinking water from a stable source.
The people on dharna complained that nobody in the government had responded to their demands and complaint in the last one week even as Police had assured them eight days ago that the PHE engineers would address their problem within a week's time.
"Left with no alternative, we have gathered here to communicate our
just and genuine demand to the Government in the language it understands. We
won’t withdraw until we get water", Ghulam Rasool Bhat of Galwanpora told
STATE TIMES.
Entire vehicular traffic on Srinagar-Airport road, that also leads to Budgam and over two dozen major towns, came to a standstill due to the squatting of the angry residents of the area on periphery of the summer capital. Jammu and Delhi-bound passengers, who included elderly women, handicapped men and scores of young children, were seen coming out of the stranded vehicles and rushing towards the airport desperately while making efforts to catch their flights.
"It seems that there's no government in place in this State", a middle aged woman passenger carrying her heavy luggage complained.
It was only after 90 minutes of the anarchical situation that some Police officials and incharge DC of Srinagar reached the spot to mollify the demonstrators with the assurances that drinking water would be provided to the locality.
After about three hours of mayhem, authorities succeeded to convince the demonstrators for calling off dharna. Traffic was diverted to airport via National Highway Bypass and Rawalpora. It resulted in further jams on the Bypass. By the time traffic was restored, scores of passengers had missed their flights. Twenty of them were accommodated by Go Air in its late afternoon flights subsequently but around 50 returned to Srinagar disappointed. Some of the passengers were seen weeping over the predicament they were forced to face due to the authorities' failure to meet the demonstrators on time.
SSP Anti - hijacking at Srinagar Airport Manzoor Ahmad Dalal told STATE
TIMES that Deputy Chief Minister Prof Nirmal Sigh and three of his staff
members missed their Jammu-bound Air India flight 822 as they failed to show up
by its departure time of 2.25 p.m. "Now Honoursble Dy CM will travel to
Jammu tomorrow. He is booked on one of tomorrow's flights", Mr Dalal said.
He said that one or two passengers do routinely miss a flight but it was for
the first time in the last over one year that 69 passenger failed to show up.
Dy CM reached airport at 2.45 pm when the flight had been pushed back on the
tarmac.
In all, officials said, that 69 passengers missed their flights. However, Go Air managed to accommodate 20 of its no-show passengers in the afternoon flights subsequently. Of the 49 passengers who returned to Srinagar, 25 were booked on Indigo flights, 11 on SpiceJet, 9 on Jet Airways and 4, including Dy CM, on Air India.
Sources said that DGP K. Rjendra Kumar pulled up many of the Police and Civil officials for their failure to respond to the situation on time. While as SSP Srinagar Amit Kumar pleaded that Hyderpora was the jurisdiction of Budgam district Police, officials said that DC Srinagar Farooq Lone was currently on mid-career training. SSP Traffic Srinagar Maqsood-uz-Zamaan said that he had just returned from Hajj and had not yet joined his duty.
Phone of DIG Traffic Alok Kumar was continuously switched off. Unconfirmed reports said that he was himself among some senior officers who arrived in from Jammu or Delhi, got stuck in the jam and walked a distance to come out of the mess.
END
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