A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to arrive in Guwahati for his two-day visit to Assam on February 3 and 4, commuters across the city witnessed workers setting up barricades and painting the dividers across the GS Road, a practice that has become synonymous the arrival of VIPs to the state.
Workers were seen painting the divider across Guwahati to cover up the dirty spit stains left by the public in a bid to beautify the city before the arrival of our Prime Minister.
Pedestrians at Fancy Bazar were also left surprised today as many of the footpath openings located near the zebra crossing on the riverfront side were barricaded using bamboo sticks, forcing people to walk on the road to get to the designated bus stand.
“It’s a little ridiculous because these iron dividers in the middle of the road were installed a few years back to prevent pedestrian movement on the road, but for some reason, they’ve barricaded the openings preventing us from getting on the footpaths. So, now people are walking on the roadside and the buses are stopping randomly to pick up passengers which is creating traffic congestion today morning in this particular stretch of road,” a Fancy Bazar resident said.
"The make-shift barricading of the footpaths seems unnecessary. If the footpaths are all damaged then they should repair it timely or use better materials when they are building it. How is hiding it by barricading helping anyone? I have seen people trip as they try to climb over the barricade. It will lead to more accidents in the area which is already bad for pedestrians,” another resident of Fancy Bazar joined in.
Similar scenes were witnessed last month in January before the visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on January 18, as workers were seen in the Bhangagarh area washing the dividers using brushes and cleaning liquid, while the damaged portions of the road at Lachit Nagar were simply covered using orange cloth, which also gave a festive feel on the eve of the Pran Pratishtha Ceremony of Ram Mandir.
Furthermore, the road under the Ulubari flyover was instantly repaired overnight by putting a layer of bitumen over an already laid out concrete block which was laid only a few months ago. Putting bitumen over a concrete block is known to be less durable and has low tensile strength.
“I passed by the road one night and the next morning while going to the office, there was a thick layer of bitumen poured over. If you had to use that, why did you put the concrete block there in the first place,” questioned an Ulubari resident.
“It’s not like any of the roads in Guwahati are proper. They hardly last one season before the administration again scraps the whole thing down to make way for something new. For them, it might be an easy way out but us commuters are the ones who have to suffer through this,” he further added.
A resident of Kachari Basti recollected another instance a few years ago when Union Minister Amit Shah came to town and passed by the BK Kakati Road where the garbage areas just at the Kachari Basti junction were covered with bamboo and clothes.
“They can’t fix the problem so they shove it under the rug by covering them with colourful clothes, etc. Apparently, the problem goes away when it gets covered up with decorative clothes,” the resident added.
The contractor who has been assigned to the work in the Lachit Nagar area today on the eve of Prime Minister Modi’s visit told G Plus, “We started the work in the morning today because we got the order last night. Four separate parties of workers are involved in the project with some painting the dividers, while others are working on the rest of the beautification projects on roads. The workers are very capable and will be working hard to finish the project quickly because PM Modi will be coming tomorrow.”
This has become a very common sight in the city on the eve of VIP visits, as the Government scrambles to cover up the apparent lack of civic sense present in Guwahatians and their lack of effort in decreasing such practices by introducing new rules and running campaigns to raise awareness about the effect on public safety and health, which should have already become apparent after the COVID-19 pandemic.
