Guwahati Tragedies Expose Lax Bar Monitoring and Unsafe Manholes: Why Authorities Act Only After Accidents

Licence of bar suspended; clearing drains going on in war footing

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: As has always been, the government machinery awakes abruptly as and when tragic accidents occur and the agility of the machinery dies down with the passage of time. This scenario is something like what the adage ‘after death comes the doctor’ means to convey.

Let’s have some reality checks. In the two accidents that occurred in Guwahati in the recent past – one at the Matgharia car crash, which claimed the lives of three young girls, and the other at Maligaon, where a lady fell into an uncovered and submerged manhole – the state machinery became active all of a sudden.

In the first case, the three girls and their male friend were boozing until 3 am at “D Tipsy Gaon” (EXORO) at Roodraksh Mall in the Bhangarh area. Thereafter, the three girls and their male friend met with the tragic accident at Matgharia, where their car crashed into a parked truck. The Kamrup (M) district administration suspended the licence of this bar last night for keeping the bar open beyond 12.30 am.

The larger question at hand is: who is responsible for monitoring the timing of bar services? Allegations go that many bars in Guwahati do not adhere to the timeline set for their services by the district administration, let alone D Tipsy Gaon. The state has around 1,223 ‘on-shops’ (bars).

According to sources, an excise official has to monitor the operation of bars in his entrusted locality. The rule goes that each bar should have IP (Internet Protocol) CCTV installed that should have a link with the mobile handset of the excise official concerned so as to allow him to monitor the activities of the bar from anywhere. However, allegations are that most of the bars have not installed IPC CCTVs, and excise officials also opt not to insist the bar owners adhere to this rule. This fact makes it crystal clear that there is some sort of ‘understanding’ between the two sides. Had there been proper monitoring of bars through IP CCTV, D Tipsy Gaon would not have remained open until 3 am on that fateful night.

Guwahati has some star-category hotels that have 24X7 bar services for which they pay some extra fees to the Excise Department.

The adage goes, ‘After death, comes the doctor.’ Now the district administration has warned bars that it will adopt a zero-tolerance policy against bars that flout regulations meant for them to adhere to. The district administration has asked the Superintendent of Excise, Kamrup (M), to conduct an inquiry and submit the report within 15 days.

After the accident at Maligaon, where a woman lost her life, the district administration and other authorities concerned have engaged workers to clear choked drains and temporarily erect bamboo fences around manholes. Had these manholes been fenced temporarily before, the woman would not have cost her life. In 2023, a girl child lost her life while on her way to school by pillion-riding her mother’s scooty. The Guwahati Jal Board dug out a portion of the road near Ganesh Mandir at Ganeshguri and kept that open and unfenced. The ‘dugout’ proved a deathtrap for the school girl. The Karmup (M) district administration instructed all agencies concerned not to leave manholes and dugouts open and unfenced. The authorities concerned followed the order on a war footing, but their agility died down with the passage of time.

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