How come enthusiasm evaporates into thin air?
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Nov 20: Rivers woo tourists the way sceneries woo ture lovers. For this obvious reason, rivers are always favourable tourist spots. Maybe, it was because of this inclition of tourists towards rivers, the previous Congress government in the State did take a plan to beautify the riverfront from Nilachal Hill to Raj Bhawan. However, the plan failed to see light of the day as corruption marred the 15-year-long Congress rule in the State. What plan the present dispensation at Dispur has with the mighty Brahmaputra is still to be known. However, given the treatment being meted out to various parghats of the Brahmaputra in Guwahati gives one an impression that the riverfront has been left to be used as a garbage dump.
Beautifying activities proposed to be carried out on the riverfront are matters of the past. Under the present dispensation at Dispur some gimmickries for keeping the riverside clean were seen. With the implementation of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in the State the Kamrup (M) district administration and some NGOs did conduct some cleanliness drives to keep the city, including the riverfront, clean. Many top leaders and influential persons were seen wielding long brooms in their hands. Soon after the Ambubachi Mela at Kamakhya, the riverfront where camps for pilgrims were erected was cleaned. Such prompt cleaning exercises were also seen in all immersion ghats of the Brahmaputra after the Vijaya Dashami in the last Durga Puja. How come that enthusiasm evaporates into the thin air? If one sees the riverfront near Bharalumukh ghat, Fancy Bazar ghat, Shukreshwar ghats and Kachari ghats now, one will certainly say that the enthusiasm shown by the administration and the NGOs earlier was just a making, for a genuine enthusiasm normally does not evaporate into the thin air in such a way.
The riverfront at Bharalumukh in the backside of Soram Higher Secondary School playground in the city is no better than a garbage dump. The ghat looks like a spot especially meant for littering. Garbage comprising leftover food, dirty clothes, polythene bags, plastic bottles, human and animal excreta and what not is seen there? The area stinks round the clock. Should the administration leave the garbage as it is to be carried away downstream when the river will swell during the monsoon? Should not the administration find a way out to get rid of the millions of tonnes of garbage being produced in the city? Is there really no scientific solution to get rid of this elephantine problem?
The Bharalumukh ghat is just one of the many spots in the Brahmaputra riverfront that make tourists and other visitors to the State discomfort distinctly etched on their faces. The situation near other ghats of the mighty river is no different. Fancy Bazar ghat, Shukreshwar ghat, and Kachari ghat also wear the same look. Does it augur well for tourism in the State and human health as well?