By D N Singh
Without any malice towards any, the common cry among the general public is so audible and realizable in the Smart city Bhubaneswar. It appears that, repeat appeal from the chief minister fails to reach the official functionaries who, apparently, do never have their ears on the ground.
For everything it is the people who have to suffer and pay also. Whereas, the civic authorities blatantly demonstrate a callous disregard towards people’s plight.
Potholes on roads linger as they are for days , months and more than a year often. But no one is held accountable let alone the mandatory repairs. If one falls into a hidden ditch, that is your problem!
Roads are dug and left for repairs for months, aggravating the problems but no one taken note of that.
There are umpteen such aching spots in the state capital Bhubaneswar those go overlooked by the Municipality (Mayor & Commissioner), Works Dept, NH and so on, but hardly an eyelid bats. Only consolation is, people have to negotiate those inconveniences and do one or two postings in the Social media the authorities barely regard to.
Flex-banners of political communities litter the entire city yet there is hardly any effort to remove those torn flexes from the kerbs.
There is no footpath in Bhubaneswar, which is not misused. More than half of such footpaths remain perennially encroached by car and two-wheel parkers, street vendors and make-shift footpath dwellers. Civic authorities show an exemplary disregard for such abuses.
Driving through the capital city bring to notice overflowing garbage bins (obviously of the BMC), leaving out a pestilential and unhealthy stench for all to inhale. The scene is, in fact, so ubiquitous yet nobody takes note of that.
Looks like it is the public which is at the receiving end and the authorities are paid to look the other way. Never to be blamed for anything that amounts to any lapse.
Road repair works, and ironically during the pre-monsoon, are taken up, digging new drains and existing roads, multiplying the traffic problems, where, even a Ambulance gets struck for long, let alone the other transports on those long undulated stretches.
In one thing the officials are dam good sincere and that is penalizing the people for the lapses.
