[phamilyman]

sgiitk,

Intersting you share that. I have personally found the Delhi - Kanpur section ultra safe (but deserted).
But this is weird.

Because I've personally been asked only once not to pay toll (but pay half of it as cash) and pass through quietly on this section.

Its happened more often on NH1 and even NH8 surprisingly. Thanks for the heads up!

Goswami ji,
Those are some motherhood statements in there. Alot of people incl BHPians have traversed the GQ sections without incident. I know folks who do Delhi - Aligarh - Etawah (nh2) varanasi in 13 hours in an indica once a month.

[sgiitk]

@phamilyman: I drive the Kanpur-Etawah section of NH2 (part of Delhi-Kanpur) very frequently. No siiues here. Also, I have friends doing almost all bits of Delhi - Allahabad quite often. Again no issues. This happened on the Allahabad-Varanasi section. I suspect this was most probably 'Diwali Chanda' ruffians.

I understand the truck reversed just before the barrier as he was (getting) into the queue. I have heard about many perople going nd coming from Varanasi but this is the first incident I heard. Maybe they were no accosted or paid the 'chanda'. Since it cost 40,000 for the repairs, I guess the fir must have been filed for the insurance claim etc.

[foby.sebastian]

My dad had a similar brutual experience.

One fine day morning I was called off from the school soon after the first hour, by my uncle , all I came to know is my dad had a serious accident.

My dad is in to jewllery manufacturing and supply, one day he was travelling back home,

To reach my home we need to cross a paddy field , he was travelling on a lamby , when it reached the paddy field , suddenly his scooter was blocked with a big bamboo stick kept across the road , 2 people holding the big bamboo across and 2 people on the road trying to pull him out of the scooter. they throwed chillie powder to his face

They managed to pull him out of the scooter and teh scooter fell down.

My dad was help less and had to give all tehmoney to those people , but they were in search for the gold , but dad always ued to keep the gold cover in the scooter locker and in a secret pocket , but on that day there was no gold in the pocket , he kept it in the scooter.

After giving all the money to the thevies , he thought that they would let him go , but after taking the money suddenly they grabbed him and took him to the paddy field .

From there he realized that he could react , my dad is 6feet and 2 inches
they had a fight , all the 4 persons was carrying knife with them.

One of them sudenly smashed him with the knife. dad was not expecting it.

Dad told me after that he gone mad , he started reacting , he managed to pull out from there and ran to the road , but they followed , there is a small bridge across a canal .

on the bridge he was caught again , but there he resisted strongly , he managerd to throw 3 persons to the the canal. while he was fighting with the last person . a two wheeler came by . the fourth one ran away.

Suddenly he ran to the scooter , For gods sake the old lambretta started at the first kick (we sitll carry that scooter) went to police station , from there he was taken to the medical college

He had 8 knife injuries , one on the fore head 3 on the hand , 2 on leg and 1 on stomach , but no major injuries.

The police was not able to arrest any one in this case , sitll my dad was knowing who was the person , because of the evidence issue no one was arrested.

Later me and my brother asked him a million time who all was that ? he never replied , he do not want us to know about that.

After 5 years , one fine morning I was travelling to the tution center on the same lamby .

I just saw an accident , It took some time for me to realize that it was a murder , One person was hit with a white ambassador and some people came out of the ambassador , and some thing happened there , The ambassador speeded away . I thought it was a hit and run case .

When I returned from the tutions I came to know that it was a murder , hell lot of Police jeeps , comissioner car etc etc , huge media coverage etc.

When I reach home I came to know that , that person who was killed is a local gunda don , he was the person who robbed my dad .

We left it to god god asked for us , More than that personally I am happy that I saw him dying in front of me , The man who tried to kill my dad died in front of me.

We were help less for years in the robery case , even though my dad was knowing the person we were help less.

Take my work , the people who made you suffer will suffer in front of you.

God saved my dad.

We still have that lamby , dad still says that nothing is stronger than a lamby!!!

[sgiitk]

@foby: what your father suffered was sad. This was in a paddy field. I am glad that God fixed the don!

What I am writing about is NH2 which is supposed to be the pride of India, a part of the GQ. Varanasi-Allahabad is a popular tourist route.

[foby.sebastian]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

@foby: what your father suffered was sad. This was in a paddy field. I am glad that God fixed the don!

What I am writing about is NH2 which is supposed to be the pride of India, a part of the GQ. Varanasi-Allahabad is a popular tourist route.

It happened on state high way . But the sad part is that there were people passing through the road in other vehicles no one informed the police or did't came out to help.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by foby.sebastian

It happened on state high way . But the sad part is that there were people passing through the road in other vehicles no one informed the police or did't came out to help.

I am not at all surprised. People are apathetic. i think it is primarily to avoid harassment by the cops. They are worried that they may be called for statements / evidence umpteen times. Also, nobody wants a run in with the local muscle! Many of them are well known in the area, and often under heavyweight political patronage.

[foby.sebastian]

What we can relay is that , there is God to ask them , if you are clean enough , the almighty will show you that.

[Hoopoe]

Originally Posted by EssYouWe

Hehe! I guess that was aimed at me.
Come to think of it. Your post has offended me quite a bit.

I apologize to you EssYouVee. I guess I was just angry when I wrote the post since I encounter such conditions almost everyday. Everything people seem to be doing affects other users in negative ways.

Think of it that carrying weapons wouldn't be required if we didn't feel threatened. The fact that we feel threatened by other road users is a very sad thing in itself. Our act of carrying weapons makes other road users do vice-versa. I have witnessed acts of people wielding weapons and even pistols on the highway. Acts of ghastly road rage are on the high.

I am more angry at the lack of basic law and order--and I blame our government for it--which, incidentally, is also elected by us. In and around Delhi expressways are coming up but there is absolutely no patrolling and they are a free-for-all. It is impossible to drive peacefully despite paying hefty tolls even with very thin traffic because everyone's just scattered around the roads. In other places people like you and me dig up the roads to erect shamianas whenever there's a marriage or religious function. We as a community seem to have lost civic sense and no one is doing anything about it.

The crux of my post was that in order to improve law and order we should also do some soul searching and see ourselves in the true light. Of course we should defend ourselves against criminal elements but just carrying weapons is not the way. Not protesting against government apathy and turning a blind eye to wrongdoings is also an act that promotes such things.

Once again. please accept my apologies for inadvertently and unintentionally hurting you my dear friend.

[EssYouWe]

No offense meant, none taken bro.

I just got rear ended by a 15-16 year old kid driving a Corolla when my car was stationery. What was sad was that he just drove off without an apology when I got out. It wasn't that I would have beaten him up or something. I would have told him to be careful and stuff. But alas, doesn't work on Indians.

@Sgiitk

Sorry for hijacking the thread sir. My sincere apologies.

I was wondering if we could compile a list of highways its best to avoid as well.

I know that the area around Yamunanagar isn't very safe. Traveled through it a few months back without an incident. But, it did seem the sort of place where the dark underbelly of humanity would flourish.

[Hoopoe]

I know that the highway between Meerut and Roorkee (leading to Haridwar and Rishikesh) is not very safe--especially late evenings and a complete no at nights. Areas around Muzaffarnagar are notorious.

[EssYouWe]

Oh yes! Muzaffarnagar is bad. I pass through that place every now and then. I remember this one time when the residents started torching cars because some bus had run over a girl. There was a huge jam.

We drove right into the villages where every third person might have had a gun. Did some serious off-roading in a Santro.

Serious advice: Do not venture off the highway when around Muzaffarnagar.

[WanderNomad]

Originally Posted by EssYouWe

Hehe! I guess that was aimed at me.

Just for the record, we are a family of 5 and it is used for long family trips. And, we have never wielded it :P. The areas we drive through aren't dotted with old age homes exactly.

I would be sorry if I was not able to defend myself if the need be. You can also rest assured that it'll never find use as a weapon of aggression.

I do want to know why you insinuate 'machos carrying rods and baseball bats' for the sad condition of roads? Do we use our rods and bats to go around poking holes into highways? Or do we go around collecting chanda from innocent highway drivers?

Come to think of it. Your post has offended me quite a bit.

Fully understand your sentiments and I am with you on this. Though I just carry a rod with me in the car, there is no harm in carrying baseball bats for self defense. I have a friend (who is also a member here) who always carries rods / bats.

There is nothing macho about it.

[black_panther]

On the way to Varanasi from Kolkata on 18th September, I noticed an incident, but didn't bother about this much.

This happened on Dehri-Varanasi section.

A local Indica carrying a few "bhai" type people overtook my car driving roughly at the toll gate and managed to cross the gate without any fee.

After sometime I saw a huge crowd on the NH2 with rods in their hands, stopping vehicles for "Chanda".

I did not pay attention to them and could drive away. Nobody stopped me, my vehicle had a WB number plate. But the local cars including the Indica were stopped.

After sometime, I found the same Indica overtaking me , with its rear glass totally smashed down.

Throughout my drive through WB,Jharkhand,Bihar,UP,Rajasthan and MP, I found that law and order in UP is the worst.

Most cars in Varanasi and Kanpur did not even have a number plate.

The cops are worse. The cops on the Kanpur bypass flyover stopped my vehicle when I was looking for directions inside Kanpur.
They initially asked for Rs 1500 bribe, which came down to Rs 300 after a little bargain.
Only 300 bucks did the trick. The cops drew the map till my destination on piece of paper and even asked me to drive on the wrong side of the flyover as that would save a few kilometers on the odo.

3 cops sold for Rs 100 each

[phamilyman]

I think they scammed you. TOTALLY.

Before you get offended, chill. I've done that route like six times so please bear with me.
a. Driving on the wrong side is how all of Kanpur does it.
b. The left side road (coming from Allahabad) is actually TWO WAY - as is the other side supposedly - except the leg which ascends to join the elevated section heading towards allahabad

I don't quite see why you'd even pay a penny!

PS: I've seen cars with number plates always - some have broken number plates but overall they are better than delhiites who brazenly remove a number all the time!

[black_panther]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

I've seen cars with number plates always - some have broken number plates but overall they are better than delhiites who brazenly remove a number all the time!

In Varanasi , most cars were without number plates.
The situation was better in Kanpur, but still I found a few cars inside the city(not on the Highway) without number plates.

I am talking about the general law and order situation in UP.
Cops taking bribe is nothing extra-ordinary anywhere in India, I believe.

The cops were very polite, nevertheless.

It was only a few hours stay for me at Kanpur on the Dushhera day, and I had my 3 month old kid with me. I didn't want to lose more time talking to them.