Footpath or deathtrap!?

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 6:  A deathtrap on the footpath of a busy area in the city, that too on the GS Road! There isn’t any hue and cry as yet! Maybe, pedestrians too take it for granted as a result of over familiarity of such scenes.

The footpath in question here is on the GS Road at Lachit gar, a posh area in Guwahati. The very spot is near the Lachit gar bus stop near the footbridge. In the me of repair, a few slabs of the footpath have been taken out. The work has been going on for around three months now. Rods being used in the construction of the slabs stick out. One gets goosebumps seeing the rods sticking out like sore thumbs. The spot has been kept covered with some CI sheets that have also been used to keep the area fenced.

Lachit gar in the city is too busy an area. The footpath in question is being used by pedestrians of all hues, including students and very old and frail ones. For them delay in the construction work of the slabs is very unfriendly. Those who run a serious risk are the ones who happen to go by the footpath at night. They do risk their life and limb.

What’s surprising is that few in Guwahati raise hue and cry after seeing such scenes in the city here and there, and now and then. One of the apparent reasons for such is that residents do take such behaviour on the part of the authorities concerned for granted, maybe, due to over familiarity of such scenes. It seems as though the city dwellers treading on such footpaths have lost a great deal of sensitivity. They take risks in almost every step in their life, and make their children take similar risk, as though, to make them adjust with the situation what they are bound to face in their life.

It is about time the pre-poll buzzword – Parivartan (change) — was tangible as the government at Dispur completed a year in office. Will it?