Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) Choudhary Zulfkar Ali today visited Jammu Bus Stand to take stock of the arrangements put in place by the district administration for the stranded passengers.The passengers are stuck in Jammu due to closure of Jammu- Srinagar National Highway and other intra-state roads following continuous rain and heavy snowfall in various parts of the State.Divisional Commissioner Jammu Dr Pawn Kotwal, IGP Jammu zone, S D Singh, IGP Traffic Jagjit Kumar, Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Simrandeep Singh, Director FCS&CA Jammu G S Chib, Additional Deputy Commissioner Jammu and other officers from civil administration and police accompanied the Minister.The Minister directed the concerned to start a Langar (free kitchen) for the stranded passengers. In this regard Director FCS&CA, Jammu G S Chib was instructed to make necessary arrangements for providing ration supply for the Langar till the road opens.
The Minister also directed district administration to ensure adequate amenities including medicines are provided to stranded passengers besides, keeping a strict vigil on prices of various commodities especially that the travel rates are kept genuine and affordable.The Minister issued the instructions after having an interaction with some stranded passengers who informed him that some people are trying to take unfair advantage of the situation, and are charging them more than their due amount.The Minister issued on spot instructions to IG Traffic to ensure that such people are brought to book and taught a lesson so that such incidents do not occur in future.He issued orders for facilitating vehicular movement as and when the traffic resumes on National Highway connecting Jammu to Srinagar and other districts.The Minister directed fixing of timing for allowing movement of civil traffic on National Highway to facilitate coordination between transport agencies and stranded passengers.