Civic problems plague historic Tezpur town

From a Correspondent

Tezpur, May 2: Historic Tezpur town, ever considered as a culture capital has been plagued with various civic problems like deplorable condition of all the connecting roads within the town, garbage dumping, water logging, haphazard construction of buildings for both residential and business  purposes and traffic jam.

During the last  couple of years  the  people here along with both the domestic  and foreign tourists have totally failed to enjoy the civic joy here as besides other issues, all the connecting roads within Tezpur town have deteriorated,  posing serious threat  to vehicular traffic and pedestrians. Big knee-deep potholes are witnessed in most of the roads because of which frequent accidents and traffic jam have been taking place.        

There are more than 26 connectiing roads within the Tezpur town maintained by both Municipality board and PWD department. Among these, Lokapriya Omeo Kumar Das Road which was earlier known as David Scott Road from SP office via Jahajghat to Circuit House, Jenkins Road from joining point of MC and Kabarkha Road via Inspector of Schools and Tezpur Government Boys' High School to Roman Catholic Church, Cotton Road touching  the Padumpukhuri area  to Jahajghat railway station, Cemetery Road from rail gate crossing  via Lalmati to ITI, Tezpur, SC road connecting resh Das and CK Das road via CR market (Anta Complex), Jyoti Kola Kendra, Municipality Board to head post office to David Scott Road, Brinj Raj Road connecting Vijaya Bank and Police point of MG road towards Kabbar Kha and Masjid Road, Dalim Bora Road (Amulla Patti) from Silver Jubilee School to Ram Krish Sevashram, Ranu Singh Road connecting main road to Jenkins Road, Chanmari road connecting from the railway crossing to Tiger Hill (Kaklata memorial park) touching important places like, Tezpur fire Brigade's base, TB Hospital, Lalmati Police outpost, Sector Headquarter, ITBP and the road connecting from Tribeni complex area to Chmari via Tezpur CRPF transit camp, AGP office, BSNL office, Tezpur Gurukul (Junior), Jaimoti Pathar and Gogoi Nursing Home, have been in a  deplorable conditions. Because of these civic problems Tezpur is fast losing its past glory.

More importantly, due to the utter negligence of the common citizens, the developmental works of the turally planned township has been hampered. For the common people here the major gateway to the northern part of the region and second-most busy destition after the State capital from all sides including tourism, Tezpur town now presents a chaotic scerio due to lapses in maintaining the town's civic facilities. The people of the region no more find any joy in the town now. The cries of Tezpur residents on various issues have fallen on deaf ears. Though the Tezpur Municipality Board (TMB) often claims achievement in the field of developmental works of the town, the people are witness to dusty broken roads, unhygienic liquid leaking out along with contamited rainwater from the blocked draige system, the rotten garbage lying openly at the roadside at various places, which together pose serious health hazards.

On the other hand, the solid waste magement established with the expenditure of crores of rupees at Balichapori, Morabharali here in 2005 to make Tezpur a garbage free city has remained a non starter till date failing to meet the target of keeping the historic town free from garbage.

The increasing number of vehicles, coupled with poor and dusty rrow roads and lack of proper footpaths are also contributing to heavy traffic jam and increasing road accidents. However, though repair work of some of these roads is on, conscious citizens here have alleged that sub-standard work are seen done by the contractors engaged in the work to  siphon  of the allotted funds in nexus with the civic body. Moreover, the Silver Jubilee School road is one of the most important roads in the town where three government schools, including Girls' Higher Secondary Schools and Silver Jubilee School are located. But the unpleasant odour and unhygienic atmosphere created by the stray pigs in the area have been posing serious threat to the students and the people.

Though it is a serious problem and well understood by the authority, yet it remains mum in this regard. Last but not the least, though Mission Chariali is considered as the gateway to Tezpur town, because of rrowness of the road it creates many problems for the vehicles. Different organizations have been urging the authority to construct a flyover at the Mission Chariali point and remove the old and the unused railway tracks for checking the traffic jam problem, but vested interests have prevented the work. The people have urged the authority concerned to address these grievances to restore the glory of the historic town.