‘‘The essential job of government is to facilitate, not frustrate, job development’’-Andrew Cuomo
If anyone wants to experience a bumpy ride, then Shillong is definitely a right place to be in and the credit goes to its narrow roads and lanes which provide the people with an experience worth cursing.
Be it in the commercial areas or the corner areas, the roads are filled with loopholes and potholes. It is more like Dejavu because traveling through rough roads with no black topping done had been experienced decades ago.
Now if, instead of moving ahead, we go back to the past…then where is the development in that.
Thanks to the brilliant minds of our leaders and wanna-be leaders who would time and again, promise good roads and better transportation but at the end of the day, roads are narrowed down to pathways and holes further deepen.
No doubt, renovations are done but the question that remains is that “Why after a year or less, these same repaired roads turn back into rough ones offering such pathetic driving conditions?”
Now, one would surely doubt the contractor’s moral ethos, ‘either he had corrupted the money sanctioned for construction of the quality road or some other possible excuses that they can come with’.
Apart from the bad roads that Shillongites are already experiencing everywhere, the other problem affecting traffic movement is the ‘digging of holes for the laying of the PHE pipes’.
This has become rampant all of a sudden with almost every lane and stretch being dug up for the laying of pipes which is sadly unplanned at the same time.
Now this is something which really irks people especially drivers. Besides causing lots of traffic, they also make the condition from bad to worse.
“They dig alright, but atleast, cover up the complete portion nicely to prevent our vehicles from going up and down”, a local taxi driver said.
Surely, readers would say, people will always complain when the government is trying to do something good for the sake of development, but do the people come under its purview for the sake of development for it seems that a lot is taken before finally giving something.
(By Ibankyntiew Mawrie)
