Things are turning grim for the pedestrians as the space meant to be used by them as footpaths are being used indiscriminately by some house-owners to keep building materials and wastes. “This is a common spectacle to see the house-owners keeping such materials right on the roadsides, caring a damn for the civic body norms.
No one is here to enforce rules and remove the blocks. With the number of vehicles plying across the city spiraling by leaps and bounds, the pedestrians have become vulnerable to road mishaps,” said Subham, a resident of Raipur (Dehradun).
Taking another instance of how the footpaths are being encroached upon, another resident said the shop-keepers are found keeping their items for sale outside the shops, resulting in shirking of the footpaths. Moreover, to add to their woes, some shopkeepers are helping chosen hawkers to pitch makeshift stalls right on the footpaths, leaving no option to the pedestrians but to walk right on the roads. They are perforce leaving their lives to the whims of the vehicle riders.
Although police has made dedicated wing called CPU to enforce people to follow traffic rule while driving and for this they have been consistently penalising but they did not bother to make footpath free for pedestrian. Although they leave vehicle, which parked on footpath, parked withing whiteline. It means they don’t care for pedestrian.
Rohan, resident of Dalanwala, said that the officers of police, department, administration and municipal corporation are not taking things in right earnest. “They tend to launch anti-encroachment drives off and on by way of tokenism, mere eye-washes to beguile the people at large in a false sense of assurance. But things on the ground remain the same with the menace returning the moment the law enforcers leave. We need drastic and permanent solution, not palliatives meant as eye-wash,” he said.
Many roads like Karanpur, EC Road, Dilaram Chowk, and others in the city stand witness to the house- owners recklessly encroaching roads by keeping building materials and wastes on the footpaths. In the crowded Paltan Bazaar area, the sight of shopkeepers keeping their items for sale outside the shops is common.
Along the stretch of Doon Hospital Road near DIG Range office, large number of vehicles, including a fire tender, was found parked on footpaths on Tuesday. Not just the pedestrians but the vehicle users are also bearing the brunt of things due to shrinking or non-existence of footpaths along the busy roads.
Thousands of people passing through these roads daily, the police and other departments do not look the least concerned, Abhinav Bisht who was coming from Collectorate side towards Doon Hospital, said, adding that even the Government vehicles are being parked alongside roads.
The same was seen along Subhash Road. The parents of the school children park their vehicles the same way. Things remain so for around an hour as the parents wait for the classes to be over to pick their children. “The departments which are supposed to be accountable to the people, the tax payers, must be made to answer,” said Anil Dobhal.