Gogoi hoodwinked by his officials? ME Road in city bears testimony to it

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, February 8: Dispur and Manipuribasti in the Paltan Bazar area in Guwahati had been considered a walking distance when the means of transportation in the city was a skeletal service.  It is a proven fact, though it is hard to swallow, that ‘ME Road  (opposite to Nepali Mandir road at Netaji Chowk at Paltan Bazar) was renovated overnight around three/four months back so as to give it an elegant look when Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s car would dash across it to attend a Congress meeting there. Was not Gogoi hoodwinked by his own administration out of his appraisal?

This is a question that makes every right–thinking people think many times:  how come a man, who is hoodwinked by his own administrative officials out of his appraisal at ease, be a better chief minister for the people who he is accountable to?

In the instant case of the road things stand as simple as – the  ME Road  is a veritable hellhole in the heart of the city. The present condition of the road is as it was some three/four months back. The saga of most of the roads in Guwahati is almost one and the same. An important meeting of the Congress was held at ME Road some three/four months back, and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was to attend the meeting. Thus what everybody can guess in the blink of an eye is that ‘the prestige  value’ of the road increased manifold, all of a sudden, as VIP cars, including one of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, were to dash across it. The ground reality, however, was such that the road was full of potholes and stones scattered over it without any bitumen to cement them together.

Thus the road was renovated overnight with a mixture of stone dust and coal tar just to give it a fine look for a day or two. Of course, it goes without saying that the amounts of money usually shown to have spent for such renovation works are of astronomical magnitude.

However, the condition of the road is one of the worst roads seen in the city.  The road was constructed by the administration with materials that were of poor quality, and as such the road got damaged within six months.

As though to cap it all, the road lacks street lights. The shopkeepers doing business in the area have to make their own arrangement for light in front of their establishments. Maybe, that made the administration leave its responsibility of illumiting the road on the traders lined up on either side of the road.

When contacted, local councillor from the BJP Mrigen Saharia said: “The road was constructed with materials that were of poor quality, and as such the road got damaged within six months. The administration got the road renovated in a single night in three/months back. The renovation works they did was just covering the road with a mixture of stone dust and coal tar. The result is what’s seen today.”

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