DIBRUGARH, March 3 - Widespread and unchecked encroachment of all public spaces in the city here and the administration�s total failure to address the nuisance just points to the utter chaos that Dibrugarh is in, in the past few years.
Almost every roadside in the city, from Kumaranichiga to the Assam Medical College and from Nirmaligaon to Kadamoni have been encroached upon by traders and vendors, and almost all of them are other than from the native communities.
Repeated complaints to evict the encroachments have been submitted to the authorities, but to no avail. The Dibrugarh Nagarik Sangha had submitted several written representations, and so have numerous public groups. The administration do take to eviction drives, but the encroachers are back the same evening, if not the next day. People here have said the administration needs to keep a strict vigil, so that the encroachments do not happen once again.
The nuisance has become so widespread here that hardly any footpath can be used by the pedestrians. Ministers, bureaucrats and police are all seeing what is happening, but the pretence of not seeing the social crime emboldens the encroachers ever more. So much so that in many parts of the New Market here, even bicyclists cannot use the roads, as traders on both sides of the roads and lanes have encroached the roads to this level.
To be fair to the authorities, some portions of the Convoy Road (from Amolapatty Chariali upto the Kodomoni Railgate) and the Bordoloi Avenue (from the Graham Bazaar Tiniali upto the Assam Medical College Gate) have been cleared up for road widening works.
However, the incorrigible vendors just return to their illegal encroachments the very next day. The lack of a sustained vigil by the administration shows in the palliative handling of this huge social nuisance.
If encroachment is a major problem staring at Dibrugarh, the unplanned and wayward drainage and road repair works is another major issue disturbing all citizens here for almost four years now. Construction of cemented drains is happening all over the old city, and the snail�s pace of work ends up in traffic chaos, clouds of dust and overall misery to the residents. There is no dearth of review meetings to monitor progress of work, but the speed of work just refuses to pick up, which proves that these review meetings have been a total failure to enthuse the contractors and their supervising departmental engineers.
Just as the four-lane highway from Nagaon to Dibrugarh is not even 20 per cent complete in almost 12 years, so has road and drainage works in Dibrugarh. While the slow progress of work results in untold misery to the citizen, the nuisance of unchecked footpath and roadside encroachment all over the city shows how disorderly any place can be. Dibrugarh, unfortunately, has become a prime example of disorderliness.
