The general concept of Citizen Reporter, I feel, is to release ourselves of the suppressed emotions on our chest that is felt for an issue to be solved. My sincere request to the Editor is to maintain this column for general issues and not the personal pitiful fights lambasting each other through personal or the pseudo names. Further I request the media that if a strong issue, in general, for our society or the State is raised by any person then please make it a point to follow it up and give reasonable reply regarding the matter. Let people write meaningful matters and write for a cause, rather write it just for sake of writing. I personally feel that the people of our State read it and forget it as in the advertisement of Hero Honda motorcycle “Fill It –Forget It”- (Feel It-Forget It).
One such matter I have felt recently, which can be meaningless to the majority is the up-growing traffic and the parking. I might me correct in saying that ‘This is our Sikkim’ Talk big work less.
Every developing country has the potential to grow. A part of the growth is the Automobile sector. Growth is inevitable. But can we sustain it? Does our state have a plan to accommodate the growth? Hospital Point and the Metro Point at 10 am is the answer. Do we have enough planning for link roads? These questions have been bugging me thinking what might happen 20 years down the line?
Private registrations cannot be stopped but what about the taxi numbers? Is that the only solution to solve the unemployment problem? How many unemployed of Sikkim have the taxi permit and how many are actually driving them? Please let there be a survey report to justify the issue of numbers genuinely. Can it be honestly stopped? (I write this because I understand that taxi permit is available if applied by educated unemployed having valid documents of Sikkim)
The parking of taxis at tourist spots is horrible. May it be the Ganesh Tok or the Tibetology, it is better not to mention about Pelling or Tsomgo.
The Government is collecting revenue from the parking lots. Residential areas also have to pay parking fees (PNGS Road, Sichey, Development Area). Of course it is much cheaper to pay the parking fees and park on the road than to convert a commercial shop to a garage.
A few months back the concerned officers were checking the documents of the vehicles plying on the road. A Maxx jeep exhausting black fumes had all its documents valid and was allowed to go but a Santro car not up to date pollution papers was fined. I wondered what if the polluting vehicle had invalid certificate. It would have been fined too, but that payment would allow him to pollute the atmosphere till he reaches the smoke testing centre?
The growing problem in our State is the increasing traffic. All I want to know is, are there people of concern in the Government with some strong plans to solve the issue before it gets out of hand? If we handle the vehicles in our State efficiently then only we can think of giving better service to those tourists who travel by their own car. Please do something with no motive to earn through back door.
If the people reading this article feels that the cause can be pursued then please write positively through this platform and do something to improve our deteriorating State. Otherwise read it and forget it.
Mahesh,
Gangtok
No comments:
Post a Comment