Former Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh Nirmal Buch, while chairing a meeting of NCHSE environment helpline on Saturday said that at present several development activities are underway in Bhopal, but there is no involvement of citizens of Bhopal in those development works.
She stressed that Government should develop a proper mechanism to obtain citizen’s opinion on all the development works, understand the citizen’s need and then act accordingly.
NCHSE Environment Helpline organised a meeting today at NCHSE to discuss the issues related pedestrian safety and conservation of Upper lake of Bhopal. The meeting was chaired by Nirmala Buch, Chairperson NCHSE. Senior Bureaucrats, Architects, Engineers, Journalists, Sector specialists and NGO representatives participated in the meeting.
On January 31, 2017, in the meeting of Environmental Helpline, the issues related to pedestrian safety specifically in Bhopal and in urban areas in general were discussed. As transpired in that meeting, Buch wrote a letter to the Chief Secretary on 22nd February 2017 highlighting the vulnerability of the pedestrians due to lack of pavements and pedestrian facilities, especially in Bhopal and requested him to advice the urban local bodies to take appropriate action to prevent pedestrian death due to road accidents. Response to this letter was received through the letter of Commissioner cum Secretary, Urban Administration and Development Department (UADD), which conveyed that Urban local bodies (UlBs) have been advised to take appropriate action.
The response as well as the issues on pedestrian safety was discussed in the meeting of environmental helpline today. Members present opined that it seems even after several months of receiving our suggestions, Government or the UlBs have taken no initiative to improve pedestrian facilities. On the other hand, BMC itself has blocked the footpaths on several locations by constructing bus stops on the pavements itself endangering the life of pedestrians. Members suggested that construction along the roads should be stopped.
Members also decided to prepare monographs for the conservation of lakes and heritage of Bhopal and share it with the citizens to decide future course of action.