Civic neglect, chaos strip historic Tezpur of its glory, citizens seek CM’s intervention

Tezpur, Aug 27: The historic city of Tezpur, once considered as an embodiment of beauty and romance, has lost its past glory owing to several civic issues.

The naturally planned and beautiful town, known for its beautiful landscape and many mythological legends, has been a major attraction for domestic and foreign tourists alike.

Unfortunately, the city is now dogged by problems like pitiable condition of roods. open dumping of garbage, haphazard construction of residential and commercial buildings, illegal sale of wetlands by some land mafias and encroachment of the wetlands by a section of unscrupulous people.

Poor maintenance of parks and historical monuments by the authorities, waterlogging, stray pigs and cows, causing awkward situations on the streets, endemic traffic snarls following excessive plying of E-rickshaws within the town by violating all norms, and criminal activities like drug peddling, theft, chain snatching, and robbery also cause a nuisance.

This significant gateway to the northern belt of the region can be described as the second-most busy city after the State capital of Guwahati from all aspects, including tourism and trade and commerce. Alas, Tezpur city now presents a chaotic scenario due to lapses in addressing civic issues and poor maintenance of the city's civic facilities.

The common people of the region no longer find joy in the city. Their pleas regarding various issues fall on deaf ears.

Even though the authorities which execute develop mental activities in the historic city, such as the Terpur Municipal Boat (TMB) and the town development authority, claim achievements in the field of developmental works in the city, the common citizens are witness to broken roads within most of the 19 wards of the town along with the malfunctioning streetlights, unhygienic effluent leaking out along with contaminated rainwater from the blocked drainage systems, and stinky garbage lying in the open on the road side at various places, which posess serious health hazard.

As a result of undisciplined acts like damping of garbage on the roadside by certain local residents, outsiders visiting the town go back with a negative impression of the city.

Although a Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) project was completed with an outlay of Rs 6,84.06.199 at Balichapori village of Morabharali here in 2005 to make Tezpur a garbage-free city, which was executed by the National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd, New Delhi, and con structed by M/s MP Khaitan, it is now lying almost defunct, "The treatment plant facilitated with administrative block, compositing pad and product store, trolleys, tractors, tractors with dozer attachment, etc., is yet to meet the target in keeping the historic town tree from garbage," said Arup Kalita, a noted social worker and senior journalist of the district.

He added that it is quite ridiculous that some members of the municipal board built bamboo barricades in some garbage-dump areas at cost of Rs 26,000 to Rs 30,000 in the name of keeping these places clean under the Swachh Bharat Mission. "All the barricades are now lying damaged as veritable garbage, presenting a funny scene for the people passing through these areas," Kalita observed.

This apart, come important roads in the city area, such as the Garuan-Patti NB road from the bead post office to the Madhab Dham area, the stretch from the Vishal Mega Mart to the Civil Chariali point, the roads in the Ushanagar Bylane no-21 area, the Sacred Heart School area roads, etc., are in the worst possible condition. Some of the roads that were repaired reconstructed have also started to wear out due to the alleged embezzlement of the lion's share of the fund allot ted for the works.

Likewise the ongoing disorderly execution of excavation within the city area for pipeline works by the 'North East Gas Distribution Company Private Limited is damaging the roads in the city area. Compounding the problem is the snail's pace of progress of the ongoing construction of the big budget flyover from the BP Tinseli (Kumargaon) to the Poruwa Charioli area. Vehicular traffic and even pedestrians are having a harrowing time due to the dilapidated service roads in the flyover construction area.

On the other hand, though the Mission Chariali is considered to be the gateway to Tezpur city, the narrowness of the road has created many problems for vehicular traffic. The local people have been pleading with the authorities concerned to remove the old and unused railway tracks from the Mission Chariali Girls College area up to Jahajghat on the bank of Brahmaputra in order to ameliorate the problem of traffic snarls, but people with vested interests have prevented this from coming to pass.

Moreover, it has been noticed that many unknown families from outside the region have settled in the Jahajghat area, occupying land belonging to the NF Railway. Several local residents have urged upon the authorities to immediately evict these settlers from the area since many criminal acts are suspected to be carried out by these new settlers with dubious antecedents.

The sad part is that these serious problems of a historic city like Tezpur are known to the authorities concerned, but they are remaining passive. The hapless citizens of this historically important city have appealed for the Chief Minister's direct intervention on these burning issues. They are still optimistic that the authorities concerned will wake up one day and get selflessly involved in restoring the glory of this historic city.