Srinagar, February 14:
State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) on Wednesday asked the government to file a detailed report about plight of passengers stranded on Srinagar-Jammu highway.
The member of the Commission in Jammu issued a notice to Chief Secretary and Divisional Commissioner Jammu asking them to furnish their report on plight of passengers stranded on highway before next date of hearing on March 1, 2019.
The petition was filed by Right to Information (RTI) activist Raja Muzaffar Bhat.
Hundreds of passengers were stranded on Srinagar-Jammu highway for eight days due to closure of the highway following heavy snowfall.
The petitioner appealed the SHRC to direct authorities that stranded passengers especially old, women and children be airlifted by the government on priority basis free of cost or on subsidized rates.
“For more than 70 years, Government of India (GoI) has failed to make Srinagar-Jammu highway all-weather road. For more than a week, thousands of people from Kashmir and other places were stranded in Jammu. These include women, children and old men, who slept under open sky or footpaths at Bus-stand Jammu,” Bhat said in the petition.
It further states that hotels charged exorbitantly and some stranded passengers had to sell their valuables like cell phones, watches or gold rings etc to meet the expenses in Jammu.
Courtesy: Greater Kashmir
