‘Govt not paying attention to suggestion’
Young politicians of
the State have now
raised their concerns over the inveterate traffic snarls which are affecting all and sundry.
Speaking out on the issue, Urban Affairs Minister and lone woman legislator of the State, Ampareen Lyngdoh, said the Government would need to adopt some stringent measures to address this problem.
“I personally feel that all drivers must maintain discipline. I think the police needs to come up with strict penalty clauses for overtaking when the road is already choked.
“Random overtaking leads to traffic jams,” Ampareen, who had a firsthand experience of being stranded on the highway on account of the traffic snarl, said.
She also feels that there should be more deployment of police personnel on the road to assist in the management of traffic while adding that at present, she does not see enough policemen manning the traffic especially on the highways.
“I don’t think manpower should be a problem in the Police department since we have a total of seven Police Battalions,” the Urban Affairs Minister said.
Ampareen however maintained that the general public too had a big role to play in solving the problem.
“I feel people who reside along the highway should be open in giving land for widening of the roads. The Government would be more than happy to widen the roads if people are ready to part with their land,” she added.
Leader of the Opposition, Conrad K Sangma, said that the Government has miserably failed to come out with strategic solutions to tackle the perennial traffic hold-ups.
“I have suggested to the State Government to deploy more manpower in traffic management but so far the Government has not taken cognisance of my suggestions,” Sangma said.
He had also suggested that more recovery vans be acquired. “Sadly the Government has not taken my suggestion seriously,” Sangma said. While informing that he himself had a bitter experience of being stuck in a traffic snarl for over six hours Sangma said, “I have even missed my flights on several occasions.”
Pointing out that missing a flight was not a major issue, he said the bigger concern is that many have lost their lives due to the traffic jam.
UDP working president Paul Lyngdoh said he is surprised that Government is only now thinking coming up with lay-byes when the problem has been persisting for the past two years.
“Actually, the Government should have thought of lay-byes ten years ago. I strongly feel that this idea of constructing the lay-bye has come rather late in the day,” Lyngdoh said.
While reiterating what others have said about posting more traffic personnel for regulation of traffic, he said it is impossible to expect this from the Government when it has not been able to sustain the service of the 200 volunteers of the Civil Defence and Home Guards department who had been assisting in traffic management in the city.
Lyngdoh also said that it was the responsibility of the Home department to address this problem.
“I am appalled that after so many years the Department is yet to have a strategic action plan for traffic management,” Lyngdoh observed.
Nongkrem MLA and the man behind the Clean Politics Campaign, Ardent M Basaiawmoit, said the issue of traffic mismanagement has been there since 2008 and he had suggested several measures to the police department.
“We have identified the problems which cause traffic snarls but the government has not taken the matter seriously. In a recent traffic jam that lasted almost three days, the main culprits were indisciplined drivers. But without stringent rules and regulation in place the offence is repeated.
“In our case there are no left side, right side, no lay-byes on the roads and so we have to impose strict rules and discipline the drivers. The government must impose heavy penalties and fine these indisciplined drivers,” Basaiawmoit said while adding that his clean politics campaign will organize a public rally on January 30 in the city on the issue.
He also said that the recent move by the police department to crack down on overtaking was an outcome of the suggestions made by him earlier.