GUWAHATI, March 14 � The Guwahati City District Committee of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) today submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister, pleading for urgent steps to examine each of the burning issues concerning the city by engaging experts of the subjects concerned and then to formulate well-considered policies for their solutions. It also called for stern steps to ban polythene bags in the city and scientific preservation of the existing city wetlands.
It also pleaded for urgent steps to check haphazard construction and raising of plinths, destruction of wetlands, clogging of drains and natural channels by indiscriminately dumping solid waste into them to bring an end to the recurring incidents of flash floods in the city.
The City District Committee of the APCC urged the Chief Minister to include representatives of the political parties, national organisations and senior citizens in the committees of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) and the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) engaged in issuing building permissions.
It also called for steps to fix average plinth heights for the city buildings, apartments, etc., for the purpose of checking the tendency of the owners and builders to raise the height of the plinths of their buildings indiscriminately.
The APCC City District Committee also called for steps to introduce a system of prior permission of the authorities concerned for purchasing new cars so as to check further rise in the vehicle population of the city and its related problem of traffic snarls. This will provide a chance to the authorities concerned to examine the necessity and infrastructural capacities of prospective vehicle owners before granting approval to their proposals for buying cars/ vehicles, etc. Moreover, the authorities should grant only a limited number of permissions for buying new vehicles in a year, it said.
It suggested construction of alternative roads to divert the traffic loads on the city�s arterial roads like GS Road, GNB Road and RG Baruah Road.
Besides, it said, multi-storeyed parking places should be built at several important places of the city and the spaces available beneath the city flyovers should be kept open for parking. Private vehicles should not be charged any parking fee at such parking places.
It questioned the silence maintained by the GMDA on the issue of closing the business establishments which do not have their own parking places. The Kamrup (Metro) district administration should check with strict measures the practice of double and triple parking in front of shopping malls.
The State Government should solve the vexed issue of granting land pattas to those who have been occupying government land in the city for a long period, it said.
