With road accidents happening at regular intervals and taking toll of lives, the people are attributing them mostly to dug- up roads. Stretches remaining so for a long time are inviting accidents, run the common refrain. They further say that the construction agencies engaged by several government departments, including Public Works Department and Peyjal Nigam, are taking a long time to fill up the dug-up parts.
Dehradun itself is seeing accidents nearly every alternate day. The residents say that the important stretches remaining dug-up for months aside from the construction agencies dumping debris right on the roads are making them vulnerable to road accidents. “Things turn more precarious when it rains,” said a senior citizen who resides in Dalanwala area of the city. “The administration accepts FIRs lodged against the construction agencies found dumping debris on the roads. But no action is being taken against them,” said another resident of the city. The scenario across the state is the same. A day ago, accidents resulted in the death of at least ten persons on a single day in Champawat district. Dehradun also saw two similar deaths on the same day.
SP Champawat D S Gunjyal said that the preliminary police investigation into the causes of the deaths said that debris dumped on the road by the construction agencies had triggered the accidents. The police have registered a case against contractor of the construction company, he said.
Similarly, the death of a woman on Haridwar Bypass on February 4 had seen a complaint lodged against a road contractor and NH officials based in Doiwala. A case under appropriate sections -279/304a of IPC had been subsequently registered against the accused in the Nehru Colony police station. After police had done investigation, a notice was served on the construction agency engaged in a government project.
Nehru Colony police station in-charge Rajesh Sah said that the dug-up stretches of the roads are the principal reason behind the road accidents. “While investigating the case, I found debris remaining dangerously dumped on the roads by some construction agencies in the Nehru Colony police station limit. Taking a serious note of things, we have served notices under section 133 of CrPC to the construction agencies concerned,” he said.