Drivers on mobile phones
Guess what often causes traffic jams in Shillong? It’s the ubiquitous mobile phone which drivers nonchalantly use despite the rule that tells them not to do so in the interest of other drivers and to prevent road accidents.
Driver distraction is one of the leading causes of motor vehicle accidents with driver distraction while using cell phone being the most common and challenging. An estimated 1.35 persons died in 2010, due to road crashes in India with an average of more than one death and four injuries every minute. India accounts for nearly 10% of global accidents.
The report ‘Road accidents in India’ by the Transport Research Wing of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India shows that “driver fault” is the single most important factor which accounted for 81% of total accidents.
According to the National Safety Council (NSC) of U.S., it is estimated that at least 28% of all traffic crashes or at least 1.6 million crashes each year involves drivers using cell phones.
The study by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), a non-profit group that works to improve traffic safety, critically reviewed research of 350 scientific papers and concluded that driving distractions, primarily using cell phones and other electronic devices are associated with up to 25 percent of car crashes. India has not yet conducted any research on this.
Traffic cops in Shillong don’t seem keen to enforce the rule, “No mobile phone use while driving.”
From rippling brook to stinking drain
The brook that runs along the Brookside Adventist Church near Fire Brigade and a school by the same name alongside the brook has turned into a community drain due to littering and barbaric construction on its banks.
The ongoing construction of a mammoth structure adjacent to the brook that runs in between and separates the two construction sites is so ugly that an elderly gentleman said his heart sinks each time he beholds this scene.
Earlier his parents used to enjoy the gentle sound of the brook flowing, which now stinks of human waste, garbage including medical wastes. The brook got a little life during the recent downpour but that was short-lived.
How the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) allows such construction bang on the rivers running through the city makes people wonder whether there is any need for a civic authority in the city. This is the fate of most rivers the most outstanding example being that of the Wah Umkhrah and Umshyrpi but the authorities don’t seem able to flex their muscles.
Looking at the traditional institutions for an answer is like Pilate washing his hands off Jesus’s crucifixion after he had bowed to public pressure. The Government needs to exercise the powers vested in it.
Chained bins
The localities around IIM Shillong at Nongthymmai have introduced public bins attached to the street poles to keep the locality clean. A noble initiative, after the city’s dustbins were demolished by the civic authorities in the name of cleanliness.
This could become a good model for other parts of the city. It is seen that after every fifty few meters these smaller bins are attached to the iron poles so that people need not to go too far to trash their wastes. But all these bins are chained with locks since there is no guarantee who will take them away.
We have the example of the hand railings erected in the city’s footpaths which have been uprooted in less than a year by smart guys who sell them to to the scrap dealer. Citizens wonder why the State Government had to erect these hand railings along the footpaths and cause unnecessary waste of public money when pedestrians anyway do not encroach into the roads.
Coming back to the bins, they are chained at just the right length for the garbage collecting vans to empty them. Some innovation in garbage collections and disposal is the need of the hour in Shillong!