Left stranded
Much seemed amiss for this SJ team member when nature called and this person had no answer!
In case the phrase ‘nature’s call’ doesn’t ring a bell, we are drawing your attention to the issue of scarcity of public toilets in select parts of the city. Unlike Police Bazar area, where pay-and-use toilets are present in abundance, at Laitumkhrah, one has to struggle to find a public toilet. The entire stretch from Don Bosco Square till Laitumkhrah Beat House is apparently deprived of pay-and-use or public toilets.
Apart from some eateries, people barely have a place where they can find a toilet to use. But there’s a catch: Will you use the toilet and not buy any food? Most will choose not to use the toilets there, perhaps.
Now, if you have to spend hundreds in place of loose change, it can make you wonder: Is it worth it?
While speaking to a fellow citizen about the subject, this person revealed that “this toilet at Don Bosco Youth Centre is the one that most of the people (including him) use when there is an emergency”.
On the sidelines, it is pertinent to outline that dearth of public toilets can potentially lead to urinating in the open even though one may earnestly want to use a toilet instead. And considering the large number of users of pay-and-use toilets at PB, setting up of at least two such facilities at Laitumkhrah will generate quite some revenue let alone how convenient it will become for the public.
The busy pavements
Allow the SJ team to paint a relatable picture of our city currently:
It is rainy, it is windy, it is cold! But walking amidst all of these hurdles with umbrellas toppling on top of each other are hundreds of pedestrians.
The sidewalk of the stretch from IGP to Police Bazar looks somewhat like this, almost all day, every day.
The situation with exorbitant cab rides in the city is nothing new. However, for those who are not aware, some interesting changes have been taking place, precipitating the outburst of walkers on the pavements.
Since some time last month, cabbies from localities like Bishnupur and Oxford Hills decided to drop off their passengers at IGP, citing “too much traffic” to the confused passengers of their vehicles. The inflated fare has, however, remained unchanged despite the distance seeing a decrease.
As of now, the phenomenon has become so obvious and unquestioned among the cabbies that IGP has become the hot new drop-off point instead of PB.
So what has resulted from this is a large number of people making the rest of their journey to Police Bazar or Motphran or anywhere ahead, on foot.
Another obvious section of these pedestrians is ‘the rebels’ — the ones who have decided to replace the cab rides with a 30-minute-long walk, and, as one of our SJ team members realised, no one seems to be really making a fuss.
Truth be spoken, the sidewalk gets so crowded at times that one has to actually pause and stick to the edge in order to make way for the others to pass.
And, of course, there are other problems in the picture — maskless individuals spitting left and right, speeding walkers bumping onto each other, regularly stepping on ‘unwanted things’ on the way, and being constantly tugged by little kids for money.
As can be seen, the situation is very much real, and it asks us to reflect on two important questions: Are we now so comfortable with overpriced cabs that we will get off anywhere the cabbies ask us to? And, is the increasing number of pedestrians on the sidewalk not a cause of concern for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic?
Social responsibility
As part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) project of Lafarge Umiam Mining Pvt Ltd 
(LUMPL) a two-storeyed, multi-purpose community hall was inaugurated by on February 11 at Hat Mawdon in the Mawdon Sirdarship at Ryngku along the Indo-Bangladesh border. The Sirdar of the area Harlinjai Skhemlon was present at the inauguration along with the members of the Supreme Court appointed, Special Purpose Vehicle Committee. The multipurpose hall, constructed at a cost of Rs 32 lakh, would serve as a meeting place, a banquet hall, training venue amongst others.
The Lafarge CSR extends over a perimeter of 50 km from the limestone mining area at Nongtrai. Several livelihoods projects such as pig and cattle rearing, bee keeping, and plantation crops have been promoted under the project. Internal roads, schools and water supply have also been constructed under the project.
State-of-the-art stadia and other amenities have also come up in the designated areas.
It may be mentioned that Lafarge mines limestone from Nongtrai area in Shella and transports the raw material to Chatak in Bangladesh.