1800 registered for airlifting: Official
Hundreds of Kashmir and Chenab Valley bound passengers stranded at General Bus Stand here are facing immense hardships as they are spending nights under open sky. The aggrieved passengers Friday staged demo at GBS here demanding immediate airlifting to their respective destinations.
Reports said that scores of stranded passengers assembled at GBS Jammu expressing anger over the failure of authorities to either airlift them or clear the highway for movement of traffic. The stranded passengers raised anti-government slogans demanding food and shelter.
Minister for Transport with independent charge, Abdul Gani Kohli rushed to the spot to pacify the protestors. He assured them that Srinagar-Jammu highway will be cleared for traffic soon.
The stranded passengers, mainly laborers and patients stuck on the highway and GBS Jammu said that they are running short of money and food.
“Due to closure of highway, I am stuck here in Jammu for the past five days and have exhausted all my money on food,” said Bashir Ahmed, a resident of Budgam, who has just returned to state after his ailing son Sohail, was discharged from PGI Chandigarh.
“All my money is exhausted, first on the treatment of my son and now during my forced stay in Jammu but we are still stuck here with no hope of reaching our destination,” he said, adding, “So far no one from the administration has bothered to come and see what we are facing.”
The aggrieved passengers said they don’t know when the road will open and how many more days they will have to spend like this.
The stranded passengers said they don’t have money to rent hotel room and administration has so far failed to provide any succor to them. “We have no money to take a room on rent or purchase food, so we were left with only option to stay in the open,” said a group of passengers at Jammu Bus Stand.
Pertinently, authorities had allowed hundreds of vehicles to move towards Kashmir on Thursday which were later stuck in Udhampur area and passengers including children and women were compelled to spend chilly night on the highway.
Meanwhile, a team of district administration Jammu visited Bus Stand and registered passengers for airlifting them to their respective places.
The visiting officers told that around 1800 passengers have been registered and they would be soon airlifted to their destinations.
