JORHAT, Feb 6 - The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) today came down heavily on the Jorhat Municipal Board (JMB), district administration, town branch of traffic police and other government departments for several problems plaguing the citizens here.
Addressing newspersons at the AJYCP Jorhat district unit office here, the president and general secretary of the Jorhat district unit of the student body, Ritul Pathak and Babu Dutta pointed out that rapid increase of unauthorised parking of three and four-wheelers, vendors squatting on footpaths and streets and lack of a proper traffic management plan, were creating havoc for the citizens.
They said it has been observed that vendors selling vegetables and fish along with fruits sellers (some on four-wheeler carts) and others selling clothes and kitchen utensils were occupying areas of roads in several busy areas under the JMB and were adding chaos to the already congested roads.
Both the leaders said that increase in vehicular traffic in recent times was contributing to chaos in the roads and each passing day the situation was worsening.
Instead of carrying out eviction drives by the police with close coordination with the district administration, JMB and the district transport office, the private agents employed by the contractors engaged by the JMB to collect parking taxes were collecting taxes from vendors sitting at unauthorised areas.
The AJYCP leaders said food stalls on four wheeler carts on roads were mushrooming in every nook and corner of the town and they too were contributing to the traffic hazard. Pathak and Dutta alleged that the quality of the food sold at the roadside food stalls was �very poor� and conditions under which the food were prepared were most unhygienic and harmful to health.
They said the Health department too was turning a blind eye to the stalls with most of the stalls illegally operating by not having registered with the health authorities.
Alleging that the ward commissioners of the ruling BJP party, which is now managing the JMB, were only interested in awarding contracts to their kin and close persons, the AJYCP leaders said in the past five months the ward members were busy �squabbling among themselves in replacing� the JMB chairperson and the vice-chairman and keeping the posts vacant for a long period of time.
Pathak and Dutta accused the JMB of failing to discharge its primary duties like keeping the town clean by way of an efficient garbage collection system and providing clean drinking water, streetlights etc.
They said that dumping garbage near the town area besides the Tocklai stream and burning the same by the JMB was causing serious health hazards to the residents of the area.
Calling for a stop of the said practice, the AJYCP leaders demanded that the civic body undertake a plan for recycling of wastes. The duo took potshots at the Jorhat Lok Sabha MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and local MLA Hitendra Nath Goswami, who is also the Speaker of the State Assembly, for the state of affairs of the JMB.
�Both the peoples� representatives (Tasa and Goswami) during their election campaigns promised better administration and action against persons found to be involved in alleged financial anomalies during the Congress rule in JMB. But after their government came to power, they seem to have forgotten their promises,� they said.
The student leaders said their organisation will soon convene a citizens� meet inviting representatives from all sections of the society to discuss the burning problems of the town to decide on the course of action to be adopted to do away with the woes.