Opinion Movers meet DC Cachar, presses for road safety measures

July 31: In an unique endeavour, social media group ‘Opinion Movers’ staged a protest demonstration and took to the streets on Wednesday afternoon in demand of road safety measures. Netizens of this group marched from near the statue of Khudiram and went to the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Cachar. Their prime demands included ensuring road safety of the commuters, repairing of the roads and disciplined movement of vehicles.

Finally, the members of ‘Opinion Movers’ who are respectable members of the civil society from various walks of life went in unison to meet the Deputy Commissioner. The meeting between the group members and Laya Madduri was held in her conference hall. Group Admin Dipak SenGupta handed over a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner which was then read out by another member Arabinda Roy.

The two fatal street accidents in which retired teacher Jagadish Chakraborty and photo journalist Molin Sharma lost their lives were highlighted and pointed out that such type of instances could be multiplied. The group members in their memorandum put emphasis on the dilution of traffic norms at Silchar. They mentioned that off and on heavy vehicles could be found moving around in the town even during ‘No Entry’ hours. Saying so, they emphasized on the breakdown of traffic rules and lack of monitoring by traffic police.

To this, the Deputy Commissioner candidly expressed the issue of shortage of traffic police in the district, for which she has already written to the state government. Suggestions were also put forward regarding installation of CCTV cameras. To this, DC Cachar informed that already certain major areas were identified wherein CCTV will be installed once the fund for it is received. Further, regular checking of driving licence by the traffic branch was also discussed.

The dilapidated road condition of Silchar town was stressed by all the members present there. At that moment, Nihar Paul, Executive Engineer of PWD (Roads) division was also present there as a member of Opinion Movers. DC Cachar pointed out that the Executive Engineer has already assured in writing that the deadly pot holes in the town area of Silchar will soon be filled up as per her direction. In this regard, she said that Mr. Nihar Paul has assured in writing that the roads will be repaired once there is no rainfall during the night hours. She also said that if Mr. Paul fails to do so quickly than the district administration will take stern action.

It was pointed out that the pot holes will further result in more number of accidents, if these are not repaired on a war-footing. Nihar Paul, Executive Engineer of PWD (Roads) replied that such repairing works could be done only during the night, but as there is rainfall every night, so they are unable to do the patch work. This was severely objected by the other members of the social media group who alleged that the road has started to break since a long time, when there was no rainfall at all.

Deputy Commissioner assured to ease the traffic problem and also urged upon the society to abstain from giving two-wheeler’s to their children until and unless they become 18. Further she told that the parents should also do counselling of their wards regarding traffic safety rules.