Bus stop near Nepali Mandir in city: A double whammy

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Jan 18: The bus stop near Nepali Mandir at Paltan Bazar in Guwahati continues to be a double whammy – a blow each to educatiol atmosphere in the area and the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan at a time when Swachh Survekshan 2017 is underway.

Adjacent to the Nepali Mandir complex there is Gorkha LP and ME School, set up way back in 1946. The atmosphere of this pre-independence-era school is not at all conducive for education. Faulty planning and negligence on the part of the authority concerned is responsible for the present plight of the school.

The school is located by the roadside. There is just a fence to drive a wedge between the school and the road that teems with honking cars and other vehicles, nose to tail. The heavy rush of vehicles and passenger-carrying buses at the spot and the bus stop every day during the school hours makes the situation not at all conducive for education.

The school was set up way back in 1946, perhaps when the importance of the road was not as it is today. With the road now being used heavily for vehicular traffic, what the administration can do is to shift the bus stop towards Meghdoot Cinema so as give the school a respite. However, over the past 70 years the administration never felt like taking such a step. This is despite tall claims of the State Education Department laying much stress on quality education. What kind of quality education can a school impart when it does not have an atmosphere conducive for education?

Education is not the only department that should be blamed for the plight of the school. The responsibility of traffic magement essentially lies with the Traffic Police and the Transport Department. A question that seeks a ratiol response is: what prevents these two departments from shifting the bus stop towards the Meghdoot Cinema side so as not to disturb the teaching-learning activities in the school?

This is not all. The very base of the school fence is also used as a uril by many as there is no public uril at the place. It seems that the unhygienic practice of uriting at the spot will be done away with on its own if the bus stop is removed towards the Meghdoot Cinema.

What is strange is that at a time when the Kamrup(M) district administration is laying much stress on Swachh Abhiyan such an unhygienic practice is allowed to happen under the very nose of the authorities concerned.

A stinking cal runs along the unfenced rear side of the school. The cal carries water and sewerage to Sorusola Beel. It is another double whammy for the school students. Since the school campus is unfenced in the rear side, the situation is fraught with the risk of students being flown away when there is water-logging in the area. The stinking cal is also fraught with creating health hazards among the teachers and taught.

Such problems, as often as not, are just allowed to be created in the city because of negligence on the part of the authorities concerned. There are certain problems that need a lot of expenses to solve them. However, there are also problems that can be solved through good sense, but for reasons best known to the authorities concerned, such problems are allowed to multiply their ill effects.