GUWAHATI, Nov 19 � The citizens of RG Baruah Road have expressed concern and resentment over the sealing of the breaks between the road dividers by the authorities concerned, leading to serious inconvenience for the commuters who are now compelled to make a big detour and cover an additional distance of 2-2.5 km even to reach what is otherwise a very short-distance destination.
Public activist Prof Deven Dutta, who has submitted a memorandum to the Chief Engineer (Road), PWD in this regard today, said that the ongoing work on blocking of the road-breaks was not just absurd and unjustified but also smacked of some vested interest.
�The entire exercise was taken up keeping the public in the dark, and is being done gradually so as not to evoke any quick adverse reaction from the public. While the pretext shown by the authorities is to minimize road mishaps and lessen traffic jams, such an exercise is unlikely to serve any purpose other than subjecting the commuters to serious inconveniences,� Prof Dutta said.
Pointing out that blocking of the breaks along the RG Baruah Road stretch was adding to the traffic congestion at the busy Ganeshguri point and consequently on the RG Baruah Road, too, Prof Dutta said that as commuters were compelled to take a long diversion even to reach a very near destination, it was resulting in huge and unnecessary wastage of time, energy and precious fossil fuel.
�The Government has been exhorting the people to save fuel through various advertisements. Is this the way to encourage the habit of preserving fuel?� he asked.
Terming the developments as �anti-people�, Prof Dutta said that from his interaction with the PWD officials, it was perplexing that no one knew exactly who was behind the uncalled-for exercise. �When I took up the matter with the PWD authorities, I was given the evasive reply that it was being done by the City Police (Traffic), which is far from convincing. I suspect that there is more to the episode than what meet the eyes,� he added.
Prof Dutta said that given the infernal condition of thousands of kms of PWD roads across the State, it was baffling why the authorities were in an undue haste to block the road divider-breaks on the city roads.
Prof Dutta said that the authorities would do well to reopen the divider-breaks on the RG Baruah Road in greater public interest.
