The Zig Zag road, near Rilbong in the city offers a pleasant walk to many during the daytime. With the amount of greenery that surrounds it, the stretch provides abundant oxygen to the lungs of the passer-by strolling along, at times in a hurry and in a leisurely manner on rest of the occasions.
However, the same does not hold true for the comparatively serene road of the city beyond sunset. As the bright daylight fades, the area plunges into darkness, not in the absence of street lights but due to their non-functioning.
Ironically, the road also leads to the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly. It is a common observation that ‘dark corners’ of the city attract shady characters which in turn leads to spurt in crimes and other unlawful activities in these pockets. The safety of citizens is also under threat in such areas and the same has been noticed in the past when load-shedding in the city led to a rise in petty crimes here. Though no such incident has been reported yet from the road mentioned above, it is still necessary to initiate steps to correct the deficiency before anti social elements find their way to this corner of the concerned locality.
“Taking advantage of the darkness, many vehicles are seen parked along the stretch with people sitting inside till late at night,” said a nearby resident of the area who uses the road regularly adding that many-a-times, women feel unsafe to take the road after darkness.
The problem of non-functioning streetlights is not restricted to the Zig Zag road though. The Butcher road, which goes right through the defense land, is another glaring example of the above scenario. With vehicles, both four wheelers and two wheelers, parked in the one way zone, absence of street lights could lead to serious accidents in the future, especially considering the “battery-saving antics” of the local cabbies.
The Government had earlier mulled the idea of building dividers in the stretch. However, the same never materialized.
Coming to Jhalupara, there is a truck parking lot in the area which is not “illuminated”. As a result, people have in the past been robbed and assaulted by miscreants there. Despite all this nothing has been done till date to light up the parking lot.
Likewise many streets and main roads in the city remain under the cover of darkness despite the huge flow of traffic till late at night.
To solve the problem, the Urban Affairs department is now counting on the MeECL to repair the non-functioning street lights across the city. A meeting was also held last week to discuss the matter.
Principal Secretary of Urban Affairs P Naik on Monday said, “We have cleared the dues of the MeECL and now expect them to repair all the street lights.”
It is learnt that around 500-600 street lights under the Municipality in the city are not functioning. According to reports, the Urban Affairs also plans to replace atleast half of the street lights with LED lights to reduce power consumption.
For the public though, functioning of the lights would be of utmost priority at this point of time.
(By Aafaque Hussain)