SHILLONG: With the year coming to an end and all eyes are on 2020, here is a look into some things which may not change. According to city residents, there are things which should ideally change but look impossible, instead.
Capacity in taxis
Firstly, the seating capacity in the city’s local cabs.
The local taxis which officially should allow five in all, including the driver, will continue to squeeze in seven people with the driver, feel many.
Change woes
Another issue is the continuous non-availablity of monetary change while making purchases right from a kwai to other things.
This trend may well not see any shift from the existing situation. The insistence by street-side vendors and shopkeepers to make purchases in round figures, only, will continue to flourish here even if all the one, two and five rupee currency coins are made available here, observed those who carry the change in small coins.
Ticketless journey
Next comes the red buses of Shillong Public Transport Service (SPTS) which has stopped issuing tickets to commuters though the government had introduced ticket-dispensing machines right after their rollout on the roads of the city and its outskirts. Ticketless commuting is a practice not adopted by the commuters here rather it has been imposed by the lethargic bus conductors – who now collect fares when passengers disembark to their destinations instead of collecting the fare inside the buses. This way of collecting fares is benefitting many – who vanish after disembarking taking advantage of the crowd of passengers paying fares.
Lime rubbing
There are omnipresent notices of “Do not rub lime here”, “Do not spit here”, “Do not pass urine here” in endless nook and corner of the city with warning of imposing fines but a look at the town’s public buildings, street poles, walls, footpath railings actually reveal the violation of the notices with impunity.
No to railways
The opposition to railways in the state since statehood, too, may not see any significant change in the years to come given the fear of influx that there will be flow of outsiders.
The opposition will be stiff in the context of the ILP demand.
