GUWAHATI, June 3 ? Guwahati is growing, its population is also burgeoning, every passing day. Once a sleepy town of only a few lakh people it has now become a noisy city of about two million inhabitants. It has been robbed of the once enviable green canopy, mother nature had bequeathed to it, by the greed of the politicians and the people they patronised. Flash flood, mud, muck, smoke, dust and vehicular emission have been making this potential metropolis gasp, while incessant noise has been making it totter tensely. Its roads are not designed to stand the pressure of the vehicles that are growing in number beyond one can comprehend. Moreover, they are full of potholes.
On the other hand, the attitude of the people settling in the city mostly betrays the cause of the city. Consumerism has made most of the Guwahatians blind and deaf to their duties, self-aggrandisement has become the motto for them. Under such a situation, the State Committee of the Foundation for Amity and National Solidarity (FANS) organised a seminar on citizens? participation in the development of Guwahati at the Pensioners? Bhawan here recently. The speakers included Sri Dhiren Barua, president, Save Guwahati, Build Guwahati, Sri Pallab Bhattacharyya, DIG, Sri Dipak Sarma, Commissioner, Guwahati Municipal Corporation, Sri AK Majumdar, director, town and country planning and Sri Nitin Gokhale, Guwahati correspondent of the Outlook. It was conducted by former Chief Secretary of the State Harendranath Das, who is the State president of FANS. The audience also interacted with the speakers on various issues concerning the city?s civic problems in the seminar.
Some of the speakers, like Sri Dhiren Barua and Sri Pallab Bhattacharyya, were of the opinion that a satellite town at North Guwahati on the northern bank of the Brahmaputra, might save the city from all its present maladies. This view was also supported by Sri Dipak Sarma. Sri AK Majumdar, while lending support to the view, however, laid much stress on having a bridge over the Brahmaputra to connect North Guwahati directly with Guwahati by road, in case the north bank town is chosen for developing the satellite town. For, he reasoned, a satellite town depends on its mother town/city for its development. North Guwahati has the scope to be developed. The required land area is also there for its development, Sri Majumdar said. Sri Dhiren Barua lamented that the State lacked a comprehensive project for the city?s development and that had made the city eat humble pie in matters of attracting funds for its infrastructure and modernisation. There is also no budgetary provision for the city and whatever allocation is made for its development, several agencies are in a position to make claims over it leading finally to a Catch 22 situation for the city projects.
Until and unless Guwahati is developed, the State can not expect itself to be developed, he claimed. Sri Pallab Bhattacharyya said that the rapid growth in the city?s vehicle population had been posing a serious problem for the police in matters of traffic management. In the year 2000, 126 persons were killed and another 400 received injuries in the road mishaps involving vehicles in the city, while in 2001, 136 persons were killed and another 250 persons were injured in similar incidents in the city, he said. The traffic branch of the city police has only 400 personnel and only 150 of them are available at a time because of the shift work system. Moreover, VIP duty assigned to traffic police is also causing problems in traffic management. The State police has, hence, made submissions before the committee for police reforms to constitute separate wings for law and order maintenance and for investigation of crimes, he said.
He also observed that local traffic management committees like in Bangalore, with the involvement of people, might be useful in smooth management of the city traffic. Besides, school children should also be involved in traffic awareness programmes and their active participation in controlling the parking problems in their respective school areas should also be considered, he said. He also called for assistance from the road engineers in matters of laying a road along the Brahmaputra between Bharalumukh and the Raj Bhawan and two service roads, parallel to the railway track, between Bharalumukh and Chandmari. No doubt, these will have some financial implication, he said. Sri Dipak Sarma said that the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) had an accumulated liability of about Rs 100 crore and with the revenue it had been generating on the basis of the 1979 assessment of property tax, the corporation was finding it hard to survive, it could never be expected to render the services to the residents of the city.
The new property tax proposed by the GMC fixes Rs 100 for every square foot of constructed area in case of the RCC buildings and Rs 50 for every sqft of the constructed area in case of the Assam type houses. The formula then has the provision of adding 7.5 per cent of the land value to the above with a relaxation of 10 per cent for maintenance cost. There is also 25 per cent rebate proposed for the structures used for residential purposes which will then be worked out as annual ratable value with the sum of cost of the vacant land (five per cent), Sri Sarma said.
Over the annual ratable value, ten per cent has been proposed as general tax and ten per cent as water tax (if water connection is provided), 2.5 per cent as scavanging tax and one per cent as street light tax, Sri Sarma said. But, the State Government recently asked the GMC to keep execution of the new rates in abeyance, he said. Sri AK Majumdar said that a fresh attempt was made at revising again the 1991 revised master plan for the city?s drainage and sewerage system. Tender in this connection has already been floated inviting quotations from eligible firms and some firms have already submitted their tenders, he said. He also regretted that in the city, people have cultivated a habit of throwing garbage into the drains and the refuge contains mostly polythene bags. This had become a big hazard for the city, as, he said, polythene takes a million years for its degradation. However, some members of the audience pointed out that polythene could be used in road construction and in that case polythene might serve as a life enhancing factor for the roads. Sri Nitin A Gokhale regretted that the people living in the city had become mostly self-centred. Easy money has become the sole aim in life for many people of the State since the late 1980s, he said.
According to a Federation of Industries and Commerce ? North East Region (FINER) survey, 700 multi-storied buildings came up in the city between 1998 and 2000, while 1,775 permission for such buildings were issued and sanctioned between April and December 2001, he said. A conservative estimate puts the cost of a 24-flat multi-storied building at Rs 2 crore. But, in a State where the Government has been faltering in paying the salaries to its employees where from such money is coming, he wondered, also enquiring whether a large amount of Central assistance is siphoned off.
While the social environment is dominated by conspicuous consumption, arrogance of power and exercise of power without responsibility across-the-board, the youth of today is basically bent upon self-aggrandisement. It is mostly not bothered about the society. On the other hand a brain drain of a different kind is taking place in the State. Good boys and girls are leaving the State for some other places in search of better academic facilities, better avenues, to settle in. Guwahati today is facing so many problems, because its citizenry is not that partaking in the common issues. To groom the leaders of tomorrow, we need to correct the social environment. The condition today is not conducive to groom the leaders of tomorrow, Sri Gokhale said. The function was also addressed by State secretary of FANS Dr Mahfuza Rahman.