Deafening silence haunts Guwahati!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, April 15: Guwahati has been under an abrupt deafening silence, after the hustles and bustles of the Assembly election in the State. Some areas in the city reek of desertion with most of city labourers, vendors, daily-wage earners, a section of students and office-goers leaving the city for their respective tive places for the Assembly elections, immediately followed by the Rongali Bihu.

Some of the badly affected areas in the city are Hatigaon, Santipur, Beltola, Maligaon, Lakhtokia, Fancy Bazar and rengi-Noonmati where people belonging to a minority community have left for the Assembly Election but yet to come back. Footpath vendors, as though, have done a vanishing act in these areas. Without youths working in garages, hotels, etc., a number of them have kept their shutters down. So much so that some of the trekkers and other vehicles have to be kept off the roads due to lack of drivers and handymen. The otherwise busy roads in the city also look deserted.   

A number of city areas seem to be paralysed – with markets without the regular green grocers or fish sellers. While a section of those have gone to their tive places from the city are busy celebrating Rongali Bihu with their family and friends, another section is set to set their feet in the city from Monday next.

A commoner said that they do face such situation when there are Idd, Durga Puja, Bihu and the like. “However, this time around, the Assembly election in the State along with the Rongali Bihu has affected us badly. The second face of polls was mainly in lower and central Assam districts. Minority and other people from these districts flock Guwahati where the local people feel the deafening silence when such people desert them from time to time,” he said.

Speaking in the same vein, the owner of a city bus and that of a hotel said that they have to incur heavy losses due to the total halt to their respective businesses because of lack of manpower. They, however, said that things would be as usual from Monday next. The bottom line is that Guwahati is not a self-dependent city where the local people have to depend on people from other areas of the State for every single factor.